In PF, Ada, and LATH, VN mentions the New York magazine
The Beau and the Butterfly, a reference to the cover art of The New Yorker. This is well-known. But until recently I assumed that VN had made up the title himself. I now see that he may have been referencing a fable, a version of which you can see
here.
The poem explores the tensions between nature and art, the given and the made, vanity and wisdom. If VN knew it, he might have detected, in the mirror, a glimpse of T. S. Eliot in the line "In toilet-arts consumes the day."