Bye, baby bunting
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Image:Bye, baby Bunting 1 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg
William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Bye, baby Bunting, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
Image:Bye, baby Bunting 2 - WW Denslow - Project Gutenberg etext 18546.jpg
The rabbit, according to Denslow
"Bye, baby Bunting" is a nursery rhyme. There are several variants. One of the more common is:
- Bye, baby Bunting,
- Father's gone a-hunting,
- Mother's gone a-milking,
- Sister's gone a-silking,
- Brother's gone to buy a skin
- To wrap the baby Bunting in.
The earliest published version, as identified to date, appeared in England in 1784, with opening line "Cry baby Bunting," a title by which the rhyme is sometimes called:
- Cry, baby Bunting,
- Daddy’s gone a-hunting,
- Gone to get a rabbit skin
- To wrap the baby Bunting in.
Yet another (longer) version is:
- Bye, baby Bunting.
- Daddy's gone a hunting,
- To get a little rabbit skin
- To wrap his baby Bunting in.
- Bye, baby Bunting.
- Daddy's gone a hunting,
- To get a little lambie skin
- To wrap his baby Bunting in.
- Bye, baby Bunting.
- Daddy's gone a hunting,
- A rosy wisp of cloud to win
- To wrap his baby Bunting in .
Also known as Cry Baby Bunting.
One version (dating to 1842) may be of American origin:
- Bye, baby bumpkin
- Where’s Tony Lumpkin
- My lady’s on her death-bed,
- For eating half a pumpkin.
- Bye, baby bower
- My mom has plenty power
- Eyes and ears and momic
- Are all in her stomach!
The rhyme was memorably and sardonically illustrated by the great British artist, Randolph Caldecott.
