Stile

Close under the eaves of the stack, and as yet barely visible,
was the red tyrant that the women had come to serve – a timber
framed construction, with wheels and straps appertaining –
the threshing-machine which, whilst it was going, kept up a
despotic demand upon the endurance of their muscles and nerves.  

(Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles)

Gaucherie was Gauguin’s term
for the style he was after
he gazed on it like Narcissus
till it owned his own features
– try find it though in a printed text
and the sentences gawky or a tad misshapen
– spelt wrong or babu even
tend to provoke laughter
because most critics they’re vexed
by what’s clumsy or naïf
it must never happen
that something other than platonic form
or hammered gold or pure gold leaf
– that gold to airy thinness bate
should touch us or should warm
the playful serious wondering great
mischeevious child in most of us
– I mean take that word appertaining
so dogged doltish so pedantic
a plodsome term – completely daft –
that makes a fuss
and yet in its exact legal decorum
is like a constable who tries to sing
and gets away with it
not murder
for to be clumsy in one light is to be deft
even graceful – graceful not slick –
in another.

- Tom Paulin