There's yet another reason I chose most of the entries in The Top Ten, one I mentioned earlier -- some use source material almost as important as the poems themselves, while others serve as source material for other books.
For instance, Idylls of the King uses Malory's Morte D'Arthur as a vital source, which is a book well worth a modern-day poet's time all by itself. La Vita Nuova, as another example, serves as the "backstory" for at least a third of the Divine Comedy -- another important book in a modern poet's library.
Some other members of The Top Ten may not qualify in this particular respect, but that's why the list is a work in progress.
Speaking of La Vita Nuova, there's another reason I included two translations (so far). I'll get into that another time.
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