Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes gives this modern version: {{image frame|align=center|content= \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'] | 2 | } \score { \new ChoirStaff > \layout { } \midi { \tempo 4=112 } } }} The rhyme is a single stanza in trochaic metre, common in nursery rhymes and relatively easy for younger children. The Roud Folk Song Index classifies the song as 4439; variants have been collected across Great Britain and North America. ==Melody==

The rhyme is sung to a variant of the 18th-century French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", 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 for publication in the songbook Sjung med oss, Mamma! (1892). "Bä, bä, vita lamm", in which the black sheep is replaced with a white lamb, has become one of the most popular Swedish children's songs. ==Origin and meaning==

'', first published c. 1765 The rhyme was first printed in ''Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book'' of about 1744, with words very similar to the modern version: In the next surviving printing, in ''Mother Goose's Melody (circa'' 1765), the text remained the same, except the last lines, which were given as, "But none for the little boy who cries in the lane". This has been taken to refer to the medieval English "Great" or "Old Custom" wool tax of 1275, which survived until the 15th century. 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. Rather than being negative, the wool of black sheep may have been prized, as it could be made into dark cloth without dyeing. ==Modern controversies==

's illustrations for "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", from the 1901 collection Mother Goose In 1986, the British popular press reported a controversy over the rhyme's language, suggesting that "black" was being treated as a racial term. This was based on a rewriting of the rhyme in one private nursery as an exercise for the children there. 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. 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 such as "happy", "sad", "hopping", and "pink". Commentators have asserted that these controversies have been exaggerated or distorted by some elements of the press as part of a general campaign against political correctness. == Notable cultural references ==

The phrase "yes sir, yes sir, three bags full, sir" has been used in reference to an obsequious or craven subordinate. It is attested from 1910, and originally was common in the British Royal Navy. The rhyme has often appeared in literature and popular culture. Rudyard Kipling used it as the title of an 1888 semiautobiographical short story. In 1951, together with "In the Mood" and "God Save the King", "Baa Baa Black Sheep" was the first song ever to be digitally saved and played on a computer. ==See also==