Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUR-LESQUE', or BUR-LESK', n.

1. Ludicrous representation; a contrast between the subject and the manner of treating it, which tends to excite laughter or ridicule.
2. A composition in which a trifling subject or low incident is treated with great gravity, as a subject of great dignity or importance; or a composition in which the contrast between the subject and the manner of considering it renders it ludicrous or ridiculous; as, in Virgil Travestie, the Lutrin of Boileau, Butler's Hudibras, and Trumbull's McFingal.