Bathos [Greek, bathos, depth].
A ludicrous descent from grandiloquence to commonplace. A literary mermaid.
“Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam
Jungere si yelit … ut turpiter atrum
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne.”
“Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.”
A good example is the well-known couplet:
“And thou, Dalhousie, the great god of war,
Lieutenant-general to the earl of Mar.”
