modern+world+is+being+swept

Posessing an induendo....
The writer is comparing the Speck to the Modern World which is supposedly being "swept" away. The Modern world is not literally being swept away, but the ideas of writing were changing. Just like the speck, the writers either wrote boldly or they wrote safely, but either way their work (fate) was to be determined by higher poets (the writer). Many poets were being swept away and only a few actually made it through.