“Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies. Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down!” This familiar nursery rhyme is often sung joyfully by children as they play, spinning in circles on the playground. Known alternatively as “Ring a Ring o’ Roses,” it’s a cherished part of childhood, evoking innocence and fun.
Despite its innocent facade, some speculate a much darker origin. From the mid-20th century onwards, there’s been speculation linking the rhyme to the Great Plague of London, a devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in 1665 that ravaged the city.
Nevertheless, there’s scant concrete evidence to substantiate this claim. Firstly, “Ring Around the Rosie” exists in various versions with differing lyrics. Moreover, the rhyme’s origins are clouded in ambiguity, with conflicting tales about its inception.
This ominous association of “Ring Around the Rosie” with the plague has been categorized as folklore. Yet, the actual history behind the rhyme may be more fascinating than the enduring myth suggests.
The Allegedly Dark History Behind ‘Ring Around The Rosie’
According to numerous sources, including James FitzGerald of the Londonist, “Ring Around the Rosie” is purportedly linked to the Great Plague, with the seemingly innocuous rhyme serving as a contrast to one of London’s deepest fears.
The version of the rhyme cited by FitzGerald goes as follows:
“Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.”
FitzGerald and others point to the roses mentioned in the rhyme as a metaphor for the telltale circular rashes characteristic of bubonic plague. Consistent across various renditions of the rhyme, the “posies” were believed to offer protection, while “A-tishoo” symbolized sneezing, a symptom of the illness. The line “And everyone falling down” is interpreted as a grim reference to death.
The more widespread rendition of “Ashes! Ashes!” in the rhyme often evokes imagery of cremating the deceased. While FitzGerald posits that the rhyme relates to the Great Plague, some scholars trace its origins back even further to the Black Death of 14th-century England. However, this interpretation faces a hurdle as cremation was prohibited in England after Roman rule ended and wasn’t legalized until the 1880s, as noted by the Natural History Museum.
These discrepancies raise doubts about the true meaning behind “Ring Around the Rosie.” If the rhyme indeed referenced the Great Plague or the Black Death, why do the specifics vary? The ambiguity deepens when considering alternate versions of the rhyme, many of which lack any morbid references to death, such as:
“A ring, a ring o’ roses
A pocket full of posies
One for Jack and one for Jim and one for little Moses
A curchey in and a curchey out
And a curchey all together”
During the game, children often engage in a flurry of actions, such as curtsying, stooping, or pretending to fall. In some renditions, the last participant to perform these actions might find themselves at the center of the circle or be prompted to reveal their romantic interest.
As noted by folklorist Stephen Winick in a 2014 blog post for the Library of Congress, “In many versions, then, the roses and posies signify what flowers often signify in traditional European culture: not suffering and death, but joy and love.”
Given that the true meaning of “Ring Around the Rosie” appears to be unrelated to death, why did the theory linking it to morbidity gain such widespread acceptance?
How The Nursery Rhyme Became Associated With The Plague
Depending on whether the nursery rhyme references the Black Death or the Great Plague, a particular factor casts doubt on this interpretation. The earliest known printed appearance of “Ring Around the Rosie” in English was in Kate Greenaway’s Mother Goose or The Old Nursery Rhymes in 1881.
Certainly, nursery rhymes and folklore were orally transmitted long before being documented in print. However, as noted by Snopes, this would imply that some version of “Ring Around the Rosie” was circulating for up to five centuries prior to its appearance in print.
This would suggest the rhyme predates even The Canterbury Tales. So, why are there no Middle English renditions of the song?
Within a decade following Greenaway’s Mother Goose, various versions of “Ring Around the Rosie” were published in folklore collections. In 1883, for instance, William Wells Newell included two versions of the rhyme in his works:
“Ring a ring a rosie,
A bottle full of posie,
All the girls in our town
Ring for little Josie.
Round the ring of roses,
Pots full of posies,
The one stoops the last
Shall tell whom she loves the best.”
Once again, these variations of the nursery rhyme don’t hint at or make any reference to a plague of any kind. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until 1961 that such a connection was suggested for the first time.
James Leasor’s The Plague and the Fire in 1961 marked the initial association between “Ring Around the Rosie” and any form of plague, a staggering 80 years after the nursery rhyme’s appearance in print.
“Few people watching a group of children dancing hand-in-hand in a circle to this well-known nursery rhyme may realize that it has its origin in the plague,” Leasor wrote. “Roses refer to the rosy rash of plague, ringed to signify the tokens; the poesies were herbs and spices carried to sweeten the air; sneezing was a common symptom of those close to death. The words ‘we all fall down’ certainly referred to Londoners during that stifling August.”
However, a much simpler explanation likely underlies why children played and sang “Ring Around the Rosie” — and it doesn’t involve any plague.
The Real Reason Children Sang ‘Ring Around The Rosie’
Folklorist Philip Hiscock offers the simplest explanation behind “Ring Around the Rosie.” He delved into the historical context of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in search of an answer.
“The more likely explanation is to be found in the religious ban on dancing among many Protestants in the 19th century, in Britain as well as here in North America,” he said. “Adolescents found a way around the dancing ban with what was called in the United States the ‘play-party.'”
According to Hiscock, play parties resembled square dances but lacked musical accompaniment. These gatherings were highly popular among adolescents, eventually influencing the traits of nursery games.
As for the interpretation of “Ring Around the Rosie,” there might not be one at all. Similar to The Beatles’ approach to writing nonsensical yet catchy lyrics, meaning can often be retroactively assigned by fans and critics. When a lyrical piece is sufficiently ambiguous, almost any interpretation becomes plausible.
In reality, the truth is much less grim. “Ring Around the Rosie” isn’t about a plague; it’s simply a playful rhyme for children to enjoy singing.
