The interesting thing about Cowslip’s warren, to me, is my impression that it had been that way for rabbit generations. I don’t think it ever says this specifically, but I kind of thought that Cowslip, Strawberry, Silverweed and the others had all been born into that system; they didn’t choose it.
The warren they lived in was basically evil (or at least inimical to a rabbit’s true nature). The rabbits were sort of trapped there, knowing on an instinctive level that this was all wrong, but unable, on their own, to envision anything different, or lacking the courage to seek it out if they did.
The pressure of denial must have been incredible, which (I think) is where the poetry and artwork came from. They weren’t able to use their inborn cleverness to escape from danger, so they channeled it into “unnatural” expressions like art. Remember, the does in Efrafa do exactly the same thing. They live in a totalitarian regime where they are prevented from even the most basic forms of natural rabbit life, including reproduction. They recite poetry to each other.
