This is not a self-referential poem.

In fact, it's completely obsessed with talking about all of 
the other poems that influenced it, those poems which 

once 

were read by poets come and gone, or in other cases come 
and not gone so much as moved quite far away, or had their 
weltanschauung changed so greatly that this poem is not any 
longer 
particularly 
impressed
as such things go

This poem is extremely, embarassingly well read; 
it just finished 
the Cantos (that wretched man), 
and 
the Duino Elegies (translated, sadly (but well-)
and it re-read 
The Sonnets 
for the umpteenth time just last weekend...

this poem has an inferiority complex

It wants to apologize for its existence, but it can't seem 
to find the right words. Which is just so...much...a thing

It has big important neighbors, this poem, and often gets 
lost in the shadows, but at least it's not a self-referential
poem...this poem doesn't like self-reference, and honestly 
resents being the work of a poet who does

This poem would consider itself a complete failure if it 
didn't have something in common with the Iliad, namely, 
this poem doesn't end, it stops