In "how to eat an ice cream cone" what does the author compare a melting ice cream cone to?

Match the bolded words in the excerpts to their contextual meanings. unoriginal well-groomed numerous he was a gentleman from sole to crown, clean favored and imperially slim. (from "richard cory" by edwin arlington robinson) this debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile, and mouth with myriad subtleties. (from "we wear the mask" by paul lawrence dunbar) . .if it must, these things are important not because a high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because they are useful. when they become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the same thing may be said for all of us, that we do not admire what we cannot understand. . (from "poetry" by marianne moore)