ANALYSIS
(by Andrea D. Merkin)
Any analysis of Mother Goose's work in Little Bo Peep must begin with the delicious ironies she uses to overturn male domination even in the naming and placing of her characters. In this respect her greatest character might well be herself. Her nom de plume, Mother Goose, is at least a triple entendre aimed squarely at the oppressive crotches of men. With its triple reference to women as the progenitors of species, the incongruous juxtaposition of the earth mother and the sexist pinch on the posterior, and the, to men even more alarming threat that she, woman, might have be the mother or all such pinches, the name Mother Goose virtually declares war on patriarchy. And what other author of the era would have had the nerve to subvert the role of shepherd from that of a man (that of Jesus in religious work) to that of an average working woman? By doing this, Goose first alerts us that what is to come will not be the expected pieties of a sexist society.
In this passion play Bo Peep can be seen playing all the roles a woman might be traditionally assigned, but in subversive manners that undercut a traditional analysis. And, in fact, by the conclusion of the poem, it is clear that Goose believes that Bo Peep is the Uberwoman, the only hope for mankind to be put back together, to be made whole. In some ways we might characterize Little Bo Peep as both a sarcastic attack on a male-dominated society and a call that we recognize the overarching role of women in society and thus give society one last chance. This becomes clear in a line-by line explication of the poem.
One stylistic result of Goose's desire to parody all things male and social whilst still leaving the hope of a unification, is that the poem has some of the characteristics of a shotgun blast. That is to say, in the space Goose has given herself, five stanzas, she must place her pellets wherever she can. Goose frequently assumes the reader will be able handle multiple messages contained, sometimes, in only small phrases.
Technically, the poem is negligible, in which each stanza is of four lines with an internal rhyme in the first and third line of each stanza. In fact, Goose relies on these internal rhymes to carry the poem stylistically as in other cases she sometimes rhymes and sometimes doesn't. Worse, she twice "rhymes" by repeating a word ("then"). There is one exception to this scheme which occurs in the fourth stanza and we will deal with this exception when we come to it.
FIRST STANZA
The first Stanza starts off in a deceptively quiet manner, though even here we see a powerful subversion barely contained by the bucolic setting of the poem. "Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep" seems a quiet enough start, but in fact it is startling for two reasons. First, Bo-peep is cast in the traditionally male role of shepherd, and by extension compared to God and/or Jesus, the traditional exemplars of the male role of shepherd. Second, in case there is any doubt who is in charge of this pastoral passion play, the sheep are unequivocally "her(s)". Truly a bracing start.
The second line brings us back to Bo-Peep's feminine standing in society, but also cleverly allows Bo-Peep an out. Bo-Peep is apparently confused by what has happened and can find no answers. This cleverly lays out the position of the "standard" woman in society. But I think this is not all Goose is saying as it does not take much to read the word "tell" in a slightly different way. Could it be that Goose is, in fact, refusing to tell where a lost society has gone, how it has gone wrong? Could it bee that Goose is refusing to be a collaborator? I find this reading compelling. Additionally, this inability to "tell" where to find them hints at the traditional voiceless status of women in patriarchal society. In one line of one stanza Goose artfully raises a variety of questions about the role of women in society and the possibility that there is much more knowledge in women than can be comfortably acknowledged by the world.
Next, the clearly feminist/separatist "leave them alone..." suggests that perhaps it is not worthwhile to follow the society of men. And in any case, this suggestion is backed by the realization that women are more necessary to men than vice versa as, inevitably, "they'll come home." Again, a lot is packed into this line, and one of the most critical notions is that this line includes the first hint of a possible happy culmination to the apparent dichotomy Goose is setting up between the Goddess and mankind. This is in the choice of the word "home" to describe where the sheep will return to. This word artfully suggests that there is the possbility of a reconciliation (see also "Little Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe").
In the penultimate line of this bracing introductory stanza, Goose steps back in intensity and formally introduces Bo-Peeps sheep. They are men as they are identified by the phallic "tails." Goose makes one editorial comment here, noting that when the men return their tails will be "behind" them. This mildly homoerotic imagery may be meant to suggest a certain feminine aspect to the men, but I doubt that a feminist theorist with the chops Goose had, would stereotype gay men in such a fashion. Instead, t his line should be read to mean that the men, once done roaming, are in fact ashamed of their actions and thus choose to secrete the seat of their faults, their phalli, behind them.
SECOND STANZA
In the second stanza Goose turns her critical blowtorch down a bit; at least the imagery is not as vivid or pointed. Goose seems primarily interested in pointing out that Bo-Peep is not much concerned that the sheep are gone. Bo-Peep falls fast asleep -- a state one could hardly reach if one were too concerned. In any case, she sleeps and dreams of her sheep/men as she has known them, "bleating" foolishly. The next line, with its reference to a "joke" can be either be interpreted as a reference to the bleating of the sheep or even a reference to the state of levity Bo Peep is in as a result of the sheep/men being absent. In any case, this stanza mainly servers to continue the fatalistic tone of the last two lines of the first stanza and to lead us to the third.
With the reader calmed by the second stanza, Goose heads into her third stanza with her poetical meat-cleaver ready to slash. In fact, in this stanza Goose has Bo-Peep find her castrated flock. Certainly a stanza to make a man pull up his trousers, as we shall see. The stanza begins with an overtly sexual nature as Bo Peep takes up her "little crook" and sets off. The use of the word crook is both a clever reference to female sexual organs (noun -- usually singular -- "the inside part (of something)) and an allusion to criminality as well. Bo Peep is determined to find her sheep and she does so. Unfortunately she finds them, in the clever pun, indeed/"in deed" and the deed they are engaging in is so hideous that it makes her "heart bleed." The latter cleverly conflates a state of woe and a the female ability to reproduce as that process is dependent upon the female menstrual cycle. Goose retreats to the almost reportorial form and concludes the stanza with the observation that the flock has been castrated, "they'd left their tails behind them." The "tails"here is an obvious allusion to mail genitalia and the fact that "they'd left their tails behind them" clearly indicates that they have been neutered (1).. It is left up to the reader as to whether or not Bo Peep herself had any complicity in this neutering.
FOURTH STANZA
In the introduction we noted that by virtue of her chosen length of poem and its theme, that Goose had to fire all her cannons into space, and this stanza represents the apogee of that tendency as it brings up, considers, and dismisses such issues as chance, female adultery, the male erection, voyeurism, male castration fantasies, and frigidity/revenge. Quite a bit of content for four ostensibly innocent lines on animal husbandry! It is also in this stanza that the poetical task Goose has set herself impinges on her technical skills, as the internal rhyme required of the third rhyme is betrayed. This is a clear marker that Goose had some important meaning to impart in this line -- otherwise she could have compromised the words to get the rhyme. We will approach this line with some interest, shortly.
The first line of this stanza determinedly contradicts every previous notion that Bo-Peep has given us as to her view of the universe. We move from the deterministic tone of the first stanza (as demonstrated by the "(will) come home" of the lost sheep) and third stanza ("determined for to find them," and this with a succesfull outcome). In this stanza we are introduced to a universe devoid of mooring. Now events happen by chance (the randomness of "happened one day) and without any rational basis ("did stray"). Additionally, the use of the word "stray" with repsect to Bo-Peep herself, indicates that the universe may have, in fact, unhinged Bo Peep herself and led her to cheat on her sheep. Bu this universe of cold, chaotic, happenstance is the universe of the male sexual being and his erection ("hard by"). The next two lines really turn the screw as Bo Peep presents us with an ugly diorama of mass castration, the sexual supernumerity of men, and a world devoid of female sexual response. The tails are all separated from the sheep.. they are less than sheep. And the sexuality of the sheep/men is reduced to nothing but a row of interchangeable body parts hanging "dry" from a tree.
The contradictions we locate in Little bo Peep are evidence not of Bo Peeps's mimetic fidelity, but of its contradictions.
FIFTH STANZA?
Experts argue whether or not the fifth stanza is actually written by Mother Goose herself, or added in later folios of her work. Ths issue revolves around whether or not a reader can believe that the the author of the stinging criticism and thorough rebuke of a male-dominated society could actually come back around to a concluding stanza in which Peep attempts to ressurect the world, bring it back to wholeness, by recreating a male society as it had been constituted at the outset of the poem. Certainly, to conclude the poem with the fourth stanza would leave a searing message of a universe ruled by chaos in the large items (again, the passivity of the "happened" and the pthlessness of "did stray") and cruelty and arbitrary arrangement in the smaller details ("side by side').
Proponents of the fifth stanza as original Goose, however, argue that Peep does not, in fact, recreate society as it was, instead only doing "what she could." Further, they argue that the penultimate stanza serves to preserve for women the role of healer and bringer of unity. Additionally, they note, this stanza still relegates men, as men, to second half citizenship even with respect to their own penises. Peep's use of the extremely odd trope, "to tack each sheep to its tail" actually represents attaching the men to their penisrd, rather than their penises to the men. We see the primacy here, of the penis with respect to the man himself, not with respect to society as a whole. For Goose, such analysts argue, still controls the "tails" themselves as well the power to replace them.
In any case, one does not need to fall on either side of this theoretical disagreement to understand that Mother Goose's "Little Bo Peep" was one of the seminal literary documents of feminism, combining a thorough and complex analysis of the (ahem) shortcomings of a male dominated society with the happy little sing-song nature of a fairy-tale.
Other Articles by the same Author:
"Little Jack Horner: Onanist, or Rapist?" Published in Women's Studies Weekly, December 15, 1996.
"Old King Cole: Pederast!" Published in Women's Studies Weekly, December 15, 1996.
Some queer theoreticians have also seen this reference as having implications of homosexual acts (back).