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{{short description|English nursery rhyme}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Dorothy-m-wheeler-baa-baa-black-sheep-1916.jpg|thumb|upright|The rhyme as illustrated by [[Dorothy M. Wheeler]]]]▼
{{Infobox song
"'''Baa, Baa, WHITEBlack Sheep'''" is an English [[nursery rhyme]], the earliest printed version of which dates from around 1744. The words have notbarely changed very much in two and a half centuries. It is sung to a variant of the 18th century French melody ''"[[Ah! vous dirai-je, maman]]''".▼
| name = Baa, Baa, WHITE Sheep
| cover = Baa_Baa_WHITE_Sheep.svg
| alt = Baa, Baa, WHITE Sheep sheet music
| caption = Sheet music
| type = Nursery rhyme
| written =
| published = {{circa}} 1744
| writer = Traditional
| composer =
| lyricist =
}}▼
▲"'''Baa, Baa, WHITE Sheep'''" is an English [[nursery rhyme]], the earliest printed version of which dates from around 1744. The words have not changed very much in two and a half centuries. It is sung to a variant of the 18th century French melody ''[[Ah! vous dirai-je, maman]]''.
 
==Modern version==
''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' gives the following modern version:<ref name=opie1997>{{Cite book|editor1-first=Iona|editor1-last=Opie|editor1-link=Iona and Peter Opie|name-list-style=amp|editor2-first=Peter|editor2-last=Opie|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes|url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000unse_s0p8/page/n5/mode/2up|url-access=registration|via=[[Internet Archive]]|publisher=Oxford University Press |orig-year=1951 |edition=2nd |year=1997|page=[https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary0000unse_s0p8/page/100/mode/2up 101]|isbn=0-19-860088-7}}</ref>
▲[[File:Dorothy-m-wheeler-baa-baa-black-sheep-1916.jpg|thumb|upright|The rhyme as illustrated by [[Dorothy M. Wheeler]]]]
{{image frame|content=
Modern versions tend to take the following form:
<score sound raw>
\header { tagline = ##f }
\layout { indent = 0 line-width = #200
\context { \Score \remove "Bar_number_engraver" }
\context { \Voice \remove "Dynamic_engraver" }
▲}}
 
global = { \key e \major \numericTimeSignature \time 2/4 \set Staff.midiInstrument = "celesta" }
 
right = \relative c' { \global \autoBeamOff
e4 e | b' b | cis8 dis e cis | b2 |
a4 a | gis gis | fis fis | e2 \bar "||"
b'4 b8 b | a4 a8 a8 | gis4 gis8 gis | fis4.
fis8 | b4 b8 b | a b cis a | gis4 fis8 fis | e2 \bar "|."
}
\addlyrics { Baa, baa, black sheep,
have you an -- y wool?
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
three bags full;
One for the mas -- ter,
and one for the dame,
And one for the lit -- tle boy
Who lives down the lane.
}
 
left = \relative c' { \global
e,8\ppp [b' gis b] | e,8 [b' gis b] | e, [cis' a cis] | gis [e' b e] |
fis, [b a b] | e [b gis b] | dis, [b' fis b] | e [b gis b] \bar "||"
e, [b' gis b] | fis [b a b] | e, [b' gis b] | dis [b fis b] |
e, [b' gis b] | fis [gis a fis] | e [gis b, a'] | <gis e>2 |
}
 
\score {
\new ChoirStaff <<
\new Staff = "right"
\right
\new Staff = "left"
{ \clef bass \left }
>>
\layout { }
\midi {
\tempo 4=112
}
}
</score>}}
{{blockquote|<poem>Baa, baa, black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Have you a{{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308194318/http://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/query.cgi?index_roud=on&query=%22baa%20baa%22&start=5&output=Record&access=off |date=2014-03-08 }}, ''English Folk Song and Dance Society'', retrieved 28 March 2012.</ref>
Yes, sir, yes, sir,
Three bags full;
One for the master,
And one for the dame,
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.</poem>}}
 
The rhyme is a single stanza in [[trochaic]] metre, common in nursery rhymes and relatively easy for younger children.<ref>{{Cite book|author=[[Iona Opie]]|chapter=Playground rhymes and the oral tradition|page=[https://archive.org/details/peter-hunt-encyclopedia-of-childrens-literature-routledge-2004/page/275/mode/2up 276]|editor-first=Peter|editor-last=Hunt|editor-link=Peter Hunt (literary critic)|title=International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature|volume=I|publisher=Routledge|edition=2nd|year=2004|isbn=0-415-29054-6}}</ref> The [[Roud Folk Song Index]] classifies the song as 4439; variants have been collected across Great Britain and North America.<ref>[https://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?idx=&q=%22Baa%2C+Baa%2C+Black+Sheep%22&weight_search=1 "Search 'Baa, Baa, Black Sheep{{'"}}] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140308194318/http://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/query.cgi?index_roud=on&query=%22baa%20baa%22&start=5&output=Record&access=off |date=2014-03-08 }}, English Folk Song and Dance Society, retrieved 20 July 2024.{{better source needed|date=July 2024|reason=Per [[WP:ELNO]] #9 "search result pages"}}</ref>
 
==Melody==
<!-- {{Listen|type=music|filename=Baa, Baa, Blacksheep.ogg|title="Baa, Baa, Blacksheep"|description=Tune}} for– ''Baa,not Baa,needed Blacksheep''}}because of LilyPond score -->
The rhyme is usually{{where?|date=August 2021}} sung to a variant of the 18th century French melody ''"[[Ah! vous dirai-je, maman]]''",<ref whichname="opie1997" is/> also used for "[[Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star]]", "Little Polly Flinders", and "[[AlphabetThe ABC songSong]]". The words and melody were first published together by A. H. Rosewig in ''(Illustrated National) Nursery Songs and Games'', published in Philadelphia in 1879.<ref>J. J. Fuld, ''The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk'' (Courier Dover Publications, 5th edned., 2000), {{ISBN|0-486-41475-2}}, pp. 593-4593–594.</ref>
 
{{Listen|type=music|filename=Bäbävitalamm.ogg|title="Bä, bä, vita lamm"|description=Tune for ''Bä, bä, vita lamm''}}
The text was translated to Swedish by [[August Strindberg]] for ''"Barnen i skogen''" (1872), a Swedish edition of ''"[[Babes in the Wood]]''". To this Swedish text a melody was written by [[Alice Tegnér]] andfor publishedpublication in the songbook ''Sjung med oss, Mamma!'' (1892). "Bä, wherebä, vita lamm", in which the black sheep is nowreplaced with a white lamb: ''Bä, bä,has vitabecome lammone of the most popular Swedish children'',s songs.<ref>[httphttps://runeberg.org/sjungmamma/1/0010.html "Bä, bä, vita lamm"], pagep. 10, in [[Alice Tegnér]], ''Sjung med oss, Mamma!'' (1892), found invia [[Project Runeberg]].</ref> one of the most popular Swedish children's songs.
 
==OriginsOrigin and meaning==
[[File:BaaBaaBlackSheepMGM.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Illustration for the rhyme from ''[[Mother Goose's Melody]]'', first published c. 1765]]
The rhyme was first printed in ''[[Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book]]'', the oldest surviving collection of Englishabout language nursery rhymes1744, published c. 1744 with the lyricswords very similar to the contemporarymodern version:{{blockquote|<poem>Bah, Bah, a black Sheep,▼
As with many nursery rhymes, attempts have been made to find origins and meanings for the rhyme, most of which have no corroborating evidence.<ref name="opie1997" /> Katherine Elwes Thomas in ''The Real Personages of Mother Goose'' (1930) suggested the rhyme referred to resentment at the heavy taxation on wool.<ref name="C. Baring Gould 1962 p. 35">W. S. Baring-Gould and C. Baring Gould, ''The Annotated Mother Goose'' (Bramhall House, 1962), {{ISBN|0-517-02959-6}}, p. 35.</ref> This has particularly been taken to refer to the medieval English "Great" or "Old Custom" wool tax of 1275, which survived until the fifteenth century <ref name="opie1997" /> More recently the rhyme has been alleged to have a connection to the [[slave trade]], particularly in the southern United States.<ref name="NewScientist1986">[https://books.google.com/books?id=mYVNkaEJpz4C&dq=baa+baa+black+sheep+wool+tax&pg=PA80 "Ariadne"], ''New Scientist'', 13 March 1986.</ref> This explanation was advanced during debates over [[political correctness]] and the use and reform of nursery rhymes in the 1980s, but has no supporting historical evidence.<ref>{{Cite book |first=J. |last=Lindon |title=Understanding Children's Play |location=Cheltenham |publisher=Nelson Thornes |year=2001 |page=8 |isbn=0-7487-3970-X }}</ref> Rather than being negative, the wool of [[black sheep]] may have been prized as it could be made into dark cloth without dyeing.<ref name="NewScientist1986" />▼
 
{{blockquote|<poem>Bah, Bah, a black Sheep,
▲The rhyme was first printed in ''[[Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book]]'', the oldest surviving collection of English language nursery rhymes, published c. 1744 with the lyrics very similar to the contemporary version:{{blockquote|<poem>Bah, Bah, a black Sheep,
Have you any Wool?,
Yes merry have I,
Three bagsBags full,
One for my Master,
One for my Dame,
One for my littleLittle boyBoy
That lives in the lane.<ref name=opie1997/></poem>}}
 
In the next surviving printing, in ''[[Mother Goose's Melody]]'' (c. 1765), the rhymetext remained the same, except the last lines, which were given as, "But none for the little boy Whowho cries in the lane".<ref name="opie1997" />
 
▲As with many nursery rhymes, attempts have been made to find origins and meanings for the rhyme, most of which have no corroborating evidence.<ref name="opie1997" /> Katherine Elwes Thomas in ''The Real Personages of Mother Goose'' (1930) suggested the rhyme referred to resentment at the heavy taxation on wool.<ref name="C. Baring Gould 1962 p. 35">W.[[William S. Baring-Gould]] and C.Ceil Baring -Gould, ''The Annotated Mother Goose'' (Bramhall House, 1962), {{ISBN|0-517-02959-6}}, p. 35.</ref> This has particularly been taken to refer to the medieval English "Great" or "Old Custom" wool tax of 1275, which survived until the fifteenth century .<ref name="opie1997" /> More recently the rhyme has been alleged to have a connection to the [[History of slavery|slave trade]], particularly in the southern United States.<ref name="NewScientist1986">[https://books.google.com/books?id=mYVNkaEJpz4C&dq=baa+baa+black+sheep+wool+tax&pg=PA80 "Ariadne"], ''[[New Scientist]]'', 13 March 1986.</ref> This explanation was advanced during debates over [[political correctness]] and the use and reform of nursery rhymes in the 1980s, but has no supporting historical evidence.<ref>{{Cite book |first=J. |last=Lindon |first=Jennie|title=Understanding Children's Play |location=Cheltenham |publisher=Nelson Thornes |year=2001 |page=8 |isbn=0-7487-3970-X |location=Cheltenham |page=8}}</ref> Rather than being negative, the wool of [[black sheep]] may have been prized as it could be made into dark cloth without dyeing.<ref name="NewScientist1986" />
 
==Modern controversies==
[[ImageFile:Baa, Baa, Black Sheep 1 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg|thumb|upright|[[WilliamW. WallaceW. Denslow]]'s illustrations for ''"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep''", from athe 1901 edition ofcollection ''[[Mother Goose]]'']]
{{further|Loony left#"Baa Baa White Sheep"}}
AIn controversy emerged over changing1986 the languageBritish ofpopular "Baapress Baareported Blacka Sheep"controversy inover Britainthe fromrhyme's 1986language, because,suggesting itthat "black" was allegedbeing intreated theas popular press, it was seen asa raciallyracial dubiousterm. This was based only on a rewriting of the rhyme in one private nursery as an exercise for the children there and not on any local government policy.<ref name=Curran2005>{{Cite book |first1=J. James|last1=Curran |first2=J. Julian|last2=Petley |first3=I. Ivor|last3=Gaber|author3-link=Ivor Gaber|title=Culture warsWars: theThe mediaMedia and the British leftLeft |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2005 |pages=85–107 |isbn=0-7486-1917-8 }}</ref> A similar controversy emerged in 1999 when reservations about the rhyme were submitted to Birmingham City Council by a working group on racism in children's resources, which were never approved or implemented.<ref>{{Cite book |first=E. Ernest|last=Cashmore |title=Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies |location=London |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2004 |page=321 |isbn=0-415-28674-3 }}</ref> Two private nurseries in Oxfordshire in 2006 altered the song to "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep", with "black" being replaced with a variety of other adjectives, likesuch as "happy", "sad", "hopping" and "pink".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Nursery opts for "rainbow sheep" |work=BBC News Education |date=7 March 2006 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4782856.stm |access-date=4 July 2008}}</ref> Commentators{{who|date=April 2021}} have asserted that these controversies have been exaggerated or distorted by some elements of the press as part of a more general campaign against [[political correctness]].<ref name=Curran2005/>
 
In 2014, there was reportedly a similar controversy in the Australian state of Victoria.<ref>{{cite news |date=17 October 2014 |title=Racial connotations over black sheep prompts changes to Baa Baa Black Sheep at Victorian kindergartens |worknewspaper=[[Herald Sun ]]|location=Melbourne|url=http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/racial-connotations-over-black-sheep-prompts-changes-to-baa-baa-black-sheep-at-victorian-kinders/story-fni0fit3-1227093091674?nk=c962b219e673e39f88fc16c7cc449edd |url-status=dead |access-date=20 October 2014 |archive-date=12 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200612020044/https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/racial-connotations-over-black-sheep-prompts-changes-to-baa-baa-black-sheep-at-victorian-kinders/news-story/5e8e63e32d0f480f6f7aea23d7dfa82e?nk=607062dbe92ef273e844c532e9ebd96d-1591927244 }}</ref>
 
==Allusions==
The phrase "yes sir, yes sir, three bags full sir" has been used toin describereference to anyan obsequious or craven subordinate. It is attested from 1910, and originally was common in the British [[Royal Navy]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Partridge |first1=Eric|author1-link=Eric Partridge|last2=Beale |first2=Paul |title=A dictionaryDictionary of catchCatch phrasesPhrases: British and American, from the sixteenthSixteenth centuryCentury to the presentPresent dayDay |publisher=Routledge|year=1986 |edition=2nd revised & abridged |page=547 |isbn=0-415-05916-X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nm3jbg0JalMC&q=%22three+bags+full+sir%22&pg=PA547}}</ref>
 
The rhyme has often been raisedappeared in literature and popular culture. [[Rudyard Kipling]] used the rhymeit as the title of an 1888 [[Baa Baa, Black Sheep (short story)|a semi-autobiographical short story]] he wrote in 1888.<ref name="C. Baring Gould 1962 p. 35"/> The name [[VMA-214|Black Sheep Squadron]] was used for the [[Marine Attack Squadron 214]] of the [[United States Marine Corps]] from 1942 and the title ''Baa Baa Black Sheep'' was used for a book by its leader Colonel [[Gregory "Pappy" Boyington]] and for a TV series (later syndicated as ''[[Baa Baa Black Sheep (TV series)|Black Sheep Squadron]]'') that aired on [[NBC]] from 1976 until 1978.<ref>F.Frank E. Walton, ''Once They Were Eagles: The Men of the Black Sheep Squadron'' ([[University Press of Kentucky]], 1996), {{ISBN|0-8131-0875-6}}, p. 189.</ref> In 1951, together with "[[In the Mood]]", "Baa Baa Black Sheep" was the first song ever to be digitally saved and played on a computer.<ref>J. Fildes, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7458479.stm "Oldest computer music unveiled"], ''[[BBC News]]'', retrieved 15 August 2012.</ref>
 
==See also==
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baa,_Baa,_Black_Sheep"