Little Willie rhymes are light verses including an indifferent or cheerfully inappropriate response to a gruesome act of violence in a quatrain form attributed to Harry Graham (1874-1936). The earliest was included among the Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes published in 1898 under Graham's pen name Col. D. Streamer while he was serving in the Coldstream Guards.[1]
Billy, in one of his nice new sashes,
Fell in the fire and was burnt to ashes;
Now, although the room grows chilly,
I haven’t the heart to poke poor Billy.[2]
The above meter and line length, often with rhyme scheme AABB.,[3] was subsequently relaxed with alternative rhyming scheme ABAB as illustrated by the following verse from a 1904 collection of Willie Ballads:
Willie walking on the track,
The engine gave the worst of squeals,
And then they turned the engine back
And scraped off Willie from the wheels.[4]
This genre of poetic black humor remained popular into the 21st century.[1] The Washington Post ran a contest in 2011 encouraging readers to compose examples.[5]