Read it through once

And the poet who is only a personality, who has not the knowledge and an existing tradition of poetry, will have little to communicate and will pass away; his work will be of the moment. It is the tradition which prevents such personality from being merely egotistic. The poet must develop or procure the consciousness of the past. He must be aware of the great works of his own language; he must know their relation to one another and to the present; and he must know how the present modifies them.