Read it through once

Many of the best poets have, in order to heighten this effect, cultivated a certain brevity. They have felt that length is dangerous, because it necessitates a perpetual variation of detail which may interfere with unity. A short poem, rightly constructed, is an effect — quick, intense, and evanescent. It is, therefore, the fit medium for the highest poetic sentiment. Even the ancient epics — Homer and Virgil — are successful largely through their warm colouring and sustained tone, which maintain throughout a unity of impression despite length.