both known and felt

Any long poem of worth will be known by its passages while being felt as a whole.

long and longer still

There are some poems that refuse to be shortened.

afraid it will end

One of those poems you could feel getting longer. A good long poem gets shorter; in fact, you’re afraid it will end.

whole not parts

A lyric retains its wholeness while a long poem is known by parts.

the many and the few

Many read the long demanding poem in part, few could aver to having read all.

big ego book

Is that book about making literature or is it a tome-manifestation of your ego?

parts of the whole

A lyric poem retains its wholeness; while the long poem is known by its lyric parts.

talking to oneself

Some poets eventually talk on and on to themselves.

[Thinking of Ammons’ late books.]

things discarded

Perhaps all the shorter poems you have written are just the tailings from a long poem you will never write.

entire and eternal

Reading the book in its entirety led you to feel you’d be reading it for an eternity.

tough slog

The experience of reading a long poem is enhanced merely by one’s sense of accomplishment.

absorbing all opinion

The long idiolectic poem that many poets claimed to know, confident that nothing they would say about the poem could be contradicted by evidence from the text.

parts of its sum

A long poem known solely in passages and by the sense of its whole.

bear with me

I think the poet decided to write a very long poem to test who among his readers were beyond discouragement.

long view

Literature is one long poem.

not a glance

The problem with most long poems is that the poet is never looking back.

line breeder

The lines seemed to breed one after another as though endless in their lineage.

come knocking

Reading the long poem, I thought to myself, Where is that man on business from Porlock when you need him to come knocking?

poem-eating contest

Nothing wrong with preferring bite-sized poetry, but you must test the limits of your appetite from time to time with long poems.

I know (of) it well

There are long poems that are read and there are long poems that have reputations but aren’t read.