«كَالْعِيَالِ عَلَى الْأَوَائِلِ»
Like dependants supported by the earlier masters.
Al-ʿiyāl means dependants or a household supported by someone else. The metaphor transfers economic dependence to literature: contemporary writers supposedly live on forms and ideas already established by their predecessors.
The comparison should not be read as a rejection of learning from earlier writers. The criticism concerns unoriginal reliance, where an author cannot transform an inherited resource into a strong new expression. This is the premise the elder will challenge.