I think Niccacci's approach is basically sound. He distinguishes narrative
and direct speech. I consider poetry to be a more formally structured and
stylized form of direct speech. So if Niccacci is correct about the verbal
syntax in direct speech in narrative, then we should be able to bring his
knowledge of how the verb forms behave in direct speech in narrative right
over into poetry and apply the principles to the verbal forms there. That's
what I plan on doing to see how it turns out.