Little Willie

A comic verse form, often a quatrain rhyming aabb but really identified by its content, the gruesome fate of "Little Willy" or a comparable figure. The form, popularized by Harry Graham (1874-1936), includes the well-known

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 Willie.

(The Norton Book of Light Verse, ed. Russell Baker [New York: W. W. Norton, 1986]: 304). For another example, see Eugene Field's "Little Willie."