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Mister Rabbit
Category: Folk Rhyme
Source: Multiple Music Books
Call:
Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your ears are
mighty
long!
Response: Yes, my Lord, they put on wrong.
Group:
Every little soul must shine, shine, shine
Every little soul must
shine!
Call:
Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, you’re in my cabbage
patch!
Response: Yes,
my Lord, I won’t come back.
Group: Every little soul must shine, shine, shine
Every little soul must shine!
Call:
Mister Rabbit, Mister Rabbit, your tail’s mighty white.
Response: Yes,
my Lord, I’m goin’ out of sight.
Group:
Every little soul must shine, shine, shine
Every little soul must shine!
Although
“Mister Rabbit”
is
included in several older books on American folk songs, its African
American origin is rarely noted. The
song is also rarely written in a call & response style. Yet, I think that this style fits it best.
This
story song is about a rabbit who is caught by in a farmer’s vegetable
garden. How does he explain
what he is doing there? How
quickly can he think up responses to the farmer’s comments?
This song is one of several rabbit songs that used to
be very well known among African American children.
However, few African American children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(or I would imagine any other urban area) know this song now.
Most urban children may have never seen a rabbit besides the Easter
bunny or in the petting zoo. Few
urban children know what a cabbage patch is.
We might be more familiar with the term “small vegetable
garden”, but that doesn’t mean that we’ve ever seen one.
When a song’s references become
outdated or foreign to a population, people are less
likely to sing the song, and may eventually forget it all together.
But, on a deeper level, this song is still relevant.
I believe that “Mister
Rabbit” may have been more than entertainment.
Or, to put it another way, the type of entertainment that enslaved
Africans taught their children also helped them develop the survival skill
of being mentally alert and knowing how to talk their way out of trouble.
Given the oppressive nature of slavery and post slavery societies,
being able to talk your way out of trouble was sometimes a matter of life
and death. “Thinking
fast on your feet” was certainly a survival skill that enslaved people
needed and it is still needed today.
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rhymes, and chants with CocoJams!
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