Little Bo Peep — Nursery Rhyme Lyrics

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
And can't tell where to find them.
Leave them alone, And they'll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them
Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep,
And dreamt she heard them bleating; But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For still they all were 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 all their tails behind 'em!
It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Unto 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 she raced;
And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should,
That each tail should be properly placed.

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Learning from "Little Bo Peep"

Nursery rhymes are some of the best teachers of rhythm and rhyme. "Little Bo Peep" uses 16 lines to create a memorable verse — proof that effective poetry doesn't need to be long. Pay attention to the meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is what makes the rhyme stick in your head.

Songwriters and poets can borrow these patterns. Try writing your own lyrics using the same rhyme scheme and line length as this nursery rhyme. You can also use words from the poem above as starting points — click any word to find rhymes or look up its definition, then build from there.

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Frequently asked questions

What are the words to Little Bo Peep?
The lyrics to Little Bo Peep are: Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep / And can't tell where to find them. / Leave them alone, And they'll come home, / Wagging their tails behind them / Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep, / And dreamt she heard them bleating; But when she awoke, she found it a joke, ... Read the full 16-line nursery rhyme at Rhyme Buster.
How many lines does Little Bo Peep have?
"Little Bo Peep" has 16 lines of verse.

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