Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry

"Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry" is a short essay by Alexander Pope published in 1728.

[1] With the essay, Pope introduced the use of the term "bathos" (Greek βάθος, depth, the antonym to ὕψος (hupsos), height) to mean a failed attempt at sublimity, a ridiculous failure to sustain it, or, more generally, an anticlimax.

First, it violates "decorum", or the fittingness of subject, and, second, it creates humor with an unexpected and improper juxtaposition.

Whereas Boileau had offered a detailed discussion of all the ways in which poetry could ascend or be "awe-inspiring," Pope offers a lengthy schematic of the ways in which authors might "sink" in poetry, satirizing the very men who were allied with Ambrose Philips.

However, Pope describes how it might fall and, with the single word "stiffen," evokes the unnatural deadness that is a mark of failure even in this "low" genre: