"Bye, baby Bunting"
Sheet music
Nursery rhyme
Published1784
Songwriter(s)Traditional

"Bye, baby Bunting" (Roud 11018) is an English-language nursery rhyme and lullaby.

Lyrics and melody

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]

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From 1784:[4]

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Origins

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:

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 of the meaning behind this infamous nursery rhyme. But, the truth is that the meaning is quite simple, yet extremely darker than one would think. And, here is where it is broken down line by line, for a better understanding.

"Little baby bunting" - referring to a bundled up baby.

"Father's gone a hunting" - as the provider of the home, the father is hunting for food.

"Mother's gone a milking" - it wasn't uncommon for a mother with extra milk to breastfeed the baby of a mother who was unable to.

"Sister's gone a silking" - sister is off somewhere making a dress.

"Brother's gone to buy a skin to wrap the baby bunting in" - brother is off to buy a covering for the baby.

When thinking about it, the nursery rhyme is clearly about a deceased baby. The mother is providing the milk she will never be able to use for her baby. The sister is off making a burial gown, while the brother has gone to buy a leather skin to make a burial wrap because they are poor and can't afford a casket.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Rackham, Arthur (1913). Mother Goose: The Old Nursery Rhymes, p.4. Century Company.
  2. 1 2 3 I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 63.
  3. ↑ Kaye Bennett Dotson (2020). The Value of Games, p.66. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9781475846416.
  4. ↑ Pamela Conn Beall, Susan Hagen Nipp (2002). Wee Sing Nursery Rhymes and Lullabies, p.50. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 9780843177664.
  5. ↑ "Weekly Essays". The Gentleman's Magazine. No. IV. London, England. April 1731. p. 150.
  6. ↑ Eulalie Osgood Grover, ed. (1915). Mother Goose. P.F. Volland. [ISBN unspecified].
  7. ↑ (1899). The Child Life Quarterly Volumes 1-2, p.94. C.F. Hodgson & Son
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