I have to say, when I first titled this painting, I had not read the full Bo Peep rhyme, which is actually kind of gruesome! I like my version much better…the reason she lost her sheep was that she was daydreaming and they kind of slipped away. But I believe she found them by the brook with their tails still on. I’m sticking with my version.

Bo Peep Daydreams
20″ × 16″ acrylic

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.