In a different way, though perhaps as amusing, is the Gelett Burgess style of nonsense verse typified in his noble quatrain to the Purple Cow:
“I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But this I’ll tell you anyhow
I’d rather see than be one.”
Some years ago the college humorous publications originated a bloodthirsty conceit which touched the doings of Little Willie:
“Little Willie yesterday
When the baby went to play
Filled him full of kerosene.
Gee! but isn’t Willie mean!”
Since then the murderous adventures of “Little Willie” have been countless.
They are all cannibalistic but rather catchy.
The awful thing about nonsense verse is the very fine line that divides a masterpiece from utter drivel. Nonsense verse is very good or very bad. When it plays along the edges it is very pleasing but when it oversteps it becomes rot.
The Humorous Ballad
A step higher in the ladder is the Humorous Ballad. The “Comic Ballad” we have had with us from the days of Robin Hood, but W. S. Gilbert in his “Bab Ballads” reached heights before his time unsuspected. By the use of catchy stanzas and unusual rhymes he made the type a thing of art. Most readers are familiar with the “Yarn of the Nancy Bell,” in which the solitary sailor sings:
“Oh, I am the cook and the captain bold
And the mate of the Nancy brig;
And the bos’n tight and the midshipmite
And the crew of the captain’s gig.”