"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. Bugs Bunny uses a line of the Nursery Rhyme in a cartoon. The Good, the Bad and the Queen contains the song "The Bunting Song" based on this Nursery Rhyme.
