Baa baa black sheep | Popular Nursery Rhymes | preschool song | ABC alphabet song <br /> <br />Baa, Baa, Black Sheep | Popular Nursery Rhymes | preschool song <br /> <br />Baa, Baa, Black Sheep preschool song nursery rhyme | ABC song <br /> <br /> <br />Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool? <br />Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! <br /> <br />One for the master, <br />One for the dame, <br />And one for the little boy <br />Who lives down the lane <br /> <br />"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" is an English nursery rhyme, the earliest surviving version of which dates from 1731. The words have changed little in two and a half centuries. It is sung to a variant of the 1761 French melody Ah! vous dirai-je, maman. Uncorroborated theories have been advanced to explain the meaning of the rhyme. These include that it is a complaint against Medieval English taxes on wool and that it is about the slave trade. In the twentieth century it was a subject of controversies in debates about political correctness. It has been used in literature and popular culture as a metaphor and allusion. The Roud Folk Song Index classifies the lyrics and their variations as number 4439.
