it's a cartoon an elephant perched precariously on a red and yellow striped beach ball ready to splat a sucker clown the instant it's tickled with a feather but is it the elephant or the beach ball producing all the ruckus when the beach ball bursts spraying the crowd with pink confetti elephant flab echoing off the canvas all the while, Calliope belts out a loud chorus stone tablets littered at her feet Here rise to life again, dead poetry! Let it, O holy Muses, for I am yours, And here Calliope, strike a higher key, Accompanying my song with that sweet air which made the wretched Magpies feel a blow that turned all hope of pardon to despair — Dante, "Purgatorio", Canto II, lines 7 to 12