Little Bo-Peep

Traditional (Mother Goose) · 1916

Catalog grade guidance: K–5 — Familiar nursery ballad.

17 content lines · 119 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 9 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #10607.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

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.


LITTLE BOY BLUE