page_title: Wee Willie Winkie
section_title: Lyrics
hierarchical_section_title: Wee Willie Winkie / Lyrics
caption_attribution_description: English: Tirling pin, Royal Mile The tirling pin was a primitive ancestor of the door-bell and a cousin of the door-knocker. It was scraped up and down to make a rattling sound that would announce a visitor's presence. This one is on the door of Cannonball House on Castlehill. Alas, the word 'tirling' has disappeared as no-one has any use for it any more. The original 'Wee Willie Winkie' poem by William Miller may be its final resting-place (provided it is not translated). Wee Willie Winkie rins through the toun, Up stairs and doon stairs in his nicht-goun, Tirlin' at the window, cryin' at the lock, 'Are the weans in their bed, for it's noo ten o'clock?'
context_page_description: "Wee Willie Winkie" is a Scottish nursery rhyme whose titular figure has become popular the world over as a personification of sleep. The poem was written by William Miller and titled "Willie Winkie", first published in Whistle-binkie: Stories for the Fireside in 1841. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13711.
context_section_description: The original text of 1841 in Scots, and a paraphrased version for English-language readers (from 1844) are below:
caption: A tirling pin from the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, a primitive form of door bell, it was scraped up and down to make a rattling sound that would announce a visitor's presence
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