Read it through once

When a new work of art is created, the existing order is incomplete: it will be modified; the new way of writing will alter the existing order, and the past must be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by the past. No artist has his complete meaning alone; he must be judged by the standards of the existing literary tradition. And the more complete the poet's knowledge of the past, the more will he be able to place himself in relation to it and to alter that tradition in an organic way.