“Ring around a rosie a pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!”
This is a nursery rhyme I sung many many times as a very small child. This week, my son came home to tell me exactly what this nursery rhyme meant. According to our 6th grade teacher, this is its meaning:
Ring around the rosie – The red pustules a person develops in the beginning stages of the “Bubonic Plague.”
Pocket full of posies – Refers to the flowers placed around the infected person in order protect others from getting infected.
Ashes, ashes – Imitates the sneezing sound which comes from the infected person.
We all fall down – Describing the many who died from the disease.
I am not sure if what the teacher said is true or not, but it has got me wondering. After my son dropped this bombshell on me, I spent the rest of the night questioning all nursing rhymes. Do they all have hidden meanings? Did Humpty Dumpty signify a real person and not just some egg? Who was Miss Muffet’s scary spider…a serial killer perhaps?
Can you picture this? Discovery channel uncovers the mysteries behind all childhood nursery rhymes, with host Geraldo Rivera. I’d watch it!
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