Gusto, Brio And Panache Poem by gershon hepner

Gusto, brio and panache
happy writers have, who dash,
while those lack élan and verve
scribe slower, fearing they may swerve,
which doesn't matter if you've brio,
panache and gusto, happy trio,
but does if you have no élan
or verve, not just an also-ran
but, what's far worse, an also-walker,
and, yet more horror, also-talker.

The ones who stand and wait to serve
because they lack élan and verve
won't slow down writers who are rash
and with their brio, gusto dash,
because panache provides the torrent
that those who're slow may find abhorrent,
for those whose writing style is speedy,
of gusto, brio never needy,
in flights of fancy won't be flustered
when they're panached and, brioed, gusted.



On November 4,1838, Stendhal, born Marie Henri Beyle, sat down at No.8 Rue Caumartin in Paris and gave orders that he was under no circumstances to be disturbed. The manuscript of 'The Charterhouse of Parma' was finished seven weeks later. As Daniel Mendlessohn says, reviewing a new translation by Richard Howard in the Modern Library ('After Waterloo' A new translation of Stendhal's masterpiece about a young soldier in Napoleon's arm, his aunt and her lover, ' The New York Times Book Review, August 29,1999) , though the swiftness of its composition with 'gusto, brio, élan, verve and panache' took a toll in narrative coherence the urgency of its style is masterly. As an example, he quotes: 'Here we shall ask permission to pass, without saying a single word about them, over an interval of three years.'

9/3/99