"Meeting the Easter Bunny" by Rowena Bennett

 I've shared this poem a couple times over the years on this blog.

First published in 1930, this poem is not Victorian, but it was the first one I memorized for fun. Enjoy!

On Easter morn at early dawn

before the cocks were crowing

I met a bob-tail bunnykin

and asked where he was going

"Tis in the house and out the house

a-tispy, tipsy-toeing,

Tis round the house and 'bout the house

a-lightly I am going."

"But what is that of every hue

you carry in your basket?"

"Tis eggs of gold and eggs of blue;

I wonder that you ask it.

"Tis chocolate eggs and bonbon eggs

and eggs of red and gray,

For every child in every house

on bonny Easter day."

He perked his ears and winked his eye

and twitched his little nose;

He shook his tail - what tail he had -

and stood up on his toes.

"I must be gone before the sun;

the east is growing gray;

Tis almost time for bells to chime."

And he hippity-hopped away.

Happy World Poetry Day 2017: I Just "Paid" for a Cup of Coffee With a Poem

Over the weekend, I read about how Austrian coffee company Julian Meinl will allow patrons to pay for a cup of coffee with a poem in honor of World Poetry Day.

UNESCO adopted March 21 as World Poetry Day in 1999 as part of its 30th session held in Paris.

Now although Julian Meinl does have a locations in the United States, it certainly doesn't have one in walking distance from my house. But there is a place that serves great coffee.

Now I don't write good poetry, but I am working on one that is getting there. So I would need to share one I hadn't written, but one in the public domain since I don't have permission from my poet friends to share their work.

The challenge, I realized as I searched online, is to find one that wasn't dark. A lover of gothic vampire fiction, I also like dark gothic poetry. I even considered The Day is Done by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, for I really like the phrase "and the night shall be filled with music," but the first few stanzas are dreary, not the uplifting mood I wished to convey.

Finally, I had one, a G-rated favorite from childhood, one I had memorized because I enjoyed the cadence: Meeting the Easter Bunny by Rowena Bennett (1930).

So I printed it on nice parchment paper from (Rebekah) and tied it with white yarn (also from Rebekah) and traipsed across the street to try my luck.

I explained the story to the woman behind the counter and asked if I could swap this poem for a small coffee. She beamed and said, "You may have a large coffee." When I returned to snap a picture of the poem and coffee, she told me she recently discovered her daughter liked classic poetry: Poe, Shakespeare, and Homer."

I shared my fledgling attempts and the satirical one I'd written in a few minutes for Before the Blood, promising to bring that one on Saturday.

"I'd like that," she said.

She was still smiling as I left. And I am sipping a steaming hot large coffee as I write this.

For more information about World Poetry Day, visit http://www.un.org/en/events/poetryday/.

For more information about the Pay With a Poem movement, visit https://www.meinlcoffee.com/poetry/campaigns/pay-with-a-poem-2017/.

To read Meeting the Easter Bunny, visit http://bryonyseries.blogspot.com/2011/04/meeting-easter-bunny-by-rowena-bennett.html.

Whether you drink coffee or not and whether you write poetry or not, take a moment to celebrate by reading a poem, writing a poem,or sharing a poem, so that today may, indeed, be "filled with music."

BryonySeries Throwback Thursday: "Meeting the Easter Bunny" By Rowena Bennett

Friday, April 22, 2011

Meeting the Easter Bunny By Rowena Bennett

First published in 1930, this poem is not Victorian, but it was the first one I memorized for fun. Enjoy!


On Easter morn at early dawn

before the cocks were crowing

I met a bob-tail bunnykin

and asked where he was going

"Tis in the house and out the house

a-tispy, tipsy-toeing,

Tis round the house and 'bout the house

a-lightly I am going."

"But what is that of every hue

you carry in your basket?"

"Tis eggs of gold and eggs of blue;

I wonder that you ask it.



"Tis chocolate eggs and bonbon eggs

and eggs of red and gray,

For every child in every house

on bonny Easter day."

He perked his ears and winked his eye

and twitched his little nose;

He shook his tail - what tail he had -

and stood up on his toes.

"I must be gone before the sun;

the east is growing gray;

Tis almost time for bells to chime."

And he hippity-hopped away.