Bye, baby Bunting
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"Bye, baby Bunting" | |
---|---|
Nursery rhyme | |
Published | 1784 |
Songwriter(s) | Traditional |
"Bye, baby Bunting" (Roud 11018) is an English-language nursery rhyme and lullaby.[citation needed]
Lyrics and melody
[edit]The most common modern version is:
Bye, baby Bunting,
Daddy's gone a-hunting,
Gone to get a rabbit skin [To get a little rabbit's skin[1]]
To wrap the baby Bunting in.[2][3]
From 1784:[4]
Origins
[edit]The expression bunting is a term of endearment that may also imply 'plump'.[2] A version of the rhyme was published in 1731 in England.[5] A version in Songs for the Nursery 1805 had the longer lyrics:[citation needed]
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.[2][6][7]
There have been many interpretations[which?] of the meaning behind this nursery rhyme, with some claiming[who?] that the skin is akin to a winding sheet.[citation needed] But it contains many similar elements to other lullabies from the British Isles, including absence of the parents, and gifts for the baby upon their promised return.
See also
[edit]- Little Baby Buntin', a 1987 album
Notes
[edit]- ^ Rackham, Arthur (1913). Mother Goose: The Old Nursery Rhymes, p.4. Century Company.
- ^ a b c I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 63.
- ^ Kaye Bennett Dotson (2020). The Value of Games, p.66. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781475846416.
- ^ Pamela Conn Beall, Susan Hagen Nipp (2002). Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies, p.50. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 9780843177664.
- ^ "Weekly Essays". The Gentleman's Magazine. No. IV. London, England. April 1731. p. 150.
- ^ Eulalie Osgood Grover, ed. (1915). Mother Goose. P.F. Volland. [ISBN unspecified].
- ^ (1899). The Child Life Quarterly Volumes 1-2, p.94. C.F. Hodgson & Son
External links
[edit]- Media related to Bye, baby Bunting at Wikimedia Commons