What Is a Zeugma?

A zeugma is a literary device in which one verb or preposition joins two objects that occur within the same phrase, but often with different meanings. It is also known as syllepsis. Zeugmas are typically used for their shock value and sometimes humor. 

Let’s look at a quick example:

While on the beach, he lost his shoes and dignity, having to walk back home barefoot. 

The verb lost governs two concepts here: shoes and dignity. Losing shoes is a literal statement. On the other hand, losing dignity is a figure of speech. This effect results in slight shock or surprise, as well as humor. We will look at one example of a zeugma from Alexander Pope and another example from the Jamaican poet, Lorna Goodison. 

The Jamaican Poet, Lorna Goodison, author of "The Woman Speaks to the Man Who Employed Her Son."

Zeugmas in literature

Here is the first example from Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock (published in 1712):

Some dire disaster, or by force, or slight,

But what, or where, the fates have wrapt in night.

Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law,

Or some frail china jar receive a flaw;

Or stain her honour, or her new brocade,

In this passage, Belinda is being warned by her guardian spirits of some misfortune to befall her — that is, a lock of her hair being cut off. We do not know yet the form that that misfortune or disaster will take. 

And it is a trivial event. The triviality of it is emphasized by the zeugma. The language used by Alexander Pope uses difficult 17th century grammar. For example, the subject of the zeugma is “Some dire disaster.” 

However, the verb for the zeugma (stain) occurs in a separate sentence. The disaster threatens to stain “her honour, or her new brocade.” Pope seems to suggest that Belinda’s hair being cut off is as much a threat to her honor as having her brocade stained with tea or coffee. In other words, it is not a threat at all. This is in keeping with the satiric spirit of the poem. 

Our second example of zeugma from literature is not a classical zeugma. A zeugma, by definition, is supposed to occur within a single sentence. However, Lorna Goodison carries out what I describe as a zeugmatic effect across two stanzas of her famous poem, “The Woman Speaks to the Man who has Employed her Son” (published in 1980):

Her son was first made known to her 

as a sense of unease, a need to cry 

for little reasons and a metallic tide 

rising in her mouth each morning. 

Such signs made her know 

That she was not alone in her body. 

She carried him full term 

tight up under her heart. 

She carried him like the poor 

carry hope, hope you get a break 

or a visa, hope one child go through 

and remember you.

Here, the verb “carried” is first employed in the same way that we use it in everyday speech to describe a woman carrying a child: “She carried him full term.” 

It is then used in the following sentence and stanza in a different sense, where her son is transformed into a metaphorical vessel carrying her hopes and dreams to be delivered out of poverty. The effect of the zeugma here is ironic. We see a mother carrying a child, who, in turn, carries this mother’s hopes and dreams for the future. 

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2025, June 28).  What Is a Zeugma? EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/zeugma