Bathos (Gr., 'depth') is a term employed by critics to designate a ludicrous descent from the elevated to the commonplace in writing or speech, or a sinking below the ordinary level of thought in a ridiculous effort to aspire (see CLIMAX). It is of the essence of bathos that he who is guilty of it should be unconscious of his fall, and while grovelling on the earth, should imagine that he is still cleaving the heavens. A good example of bathos is the well-known couplet:
And thou, Dalhousie, thou great god of war,
Lieutenant-general to the Earl of Mar! or the well-known encomium of the celebrated Boyle: 'Robert Boyle was a great man, a very great man; he was father of chemistry and brother to the Earl of Cork.'