Little Bo-Peep facts for kids

Quick facts for kids "Little Bo-Peep"
Sheet music
Nursery rhyme
Published	c. 1805

"Little Bo-Peep" or "Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep" is a popular English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6487.

Lyrics and melody

As with most products of oral tradition, there are many variations to the rhyme. The most common modern version is:

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,

and doesn't know where to find them;

leave them alone, And they'll come home,

wagging (bringing) their tails behind them.

19th century educational game

Little Bo-Peep, by Walter Crane, c. 1885

Common variations on second-line include "And can't tell where to find them." The fourth line is frequently given as "Bringing their tails behind them", or sometimes "Dragging their tails behind them". This alternative version is useful in the extended version, usually of four further stanzas. The melody commonly associated with the rhyme was first recorded in 1870 by the composer and nursery rhyme collector James William Elliott in his National Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Songs.

Additional verses

William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for the rhyme, 1902

The following additional verses are often added to the rhyme:

Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep,

and dreamt she heard them bleating;

but when she awoke, she found it a joke,

for they were still a-fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook,

determined for to find them;

she found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,

for they'd left their tails behind them.

It happened one day, as Bo-Peep did stray

into a meadow hard by,

there she espied their tails side by side,

all hung on a tree to dry.

She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye,

and over the hillocks went rambling,

and tried what she could, as a shepherdess should,

to tack each again to its lambkin.