WE ALL FALL DOWN
‘Ring-a ring-a roses
A pocket full of posies
Husha! Husha!
We all fall down!’
This version of the nursery rhyme is engraved in my brain from the bygone days of preschool in India. This eminent nursery rhyme is one of the many things that the British left behind after the end to their injunction. Different nations across the world have fairly similar versions of this poem with very little difference.
The American version of this poem goes like this-
‘Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down’
The British version of this poem reads as-
‘Ring-a-ring o’ roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down’
The origin of this rhyme is still unknown. The basics of the game are that a group of children form a ring, dance in a circle and fall down at the last verse.
The slowest child among them gets the penalty of becoming “the rosie” and takes the place in the centre. You may ask however : why are we discussing nursery rhymes? Among the many things we were taught when we were kids for no reason whatsoever, this is one of them. Even to this day not all of us know the myth that lies behind this rhyme.
FIRST APPEARANCE
The origin of the game has long been unknown. But folklorists and scholars of literature have been searching for the origin of this popular nursery rhyme. A young children’s game called ‘ring o roses’ was mentioned in an article in 1846. A group of young children (the eldest being about seven) form a ring, from which a boy takes one girl and kisses her.
Another early printing of the rhyme was in Kate Greenaway’s 1881 edition of Mother Goose; or, the Old Nursery Rhymes:
Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies;
Hush! hush! hush! hush!
We’re all tumbled down.
WE ALL FALL DEAD
The meaning of the game has long been a subject to speculation. In few primary myths, the game was believed to be associated with a pagan myth which referred to pagan beings of light. But more literal denotation started dispersing in the 20th century. After World War II, folklorists theorized that the rhyme was associated with the bubonic plague that befell England in the 17th century. The folklorists correlated similarities between the ambiguous lyrics of this rhyme with the deadly plague that swept through England and ended millions of lives. Interpreters believed that the “ring-a-round the rosie” was related to the red circular rash -a common symptom in the plague. The pocket full of posies referred to the flowers used as herbal treatment and a means to ward off the terrible smell of the disease. The “a-tishoo” mimicked the final fatal symptom of the disease which was coughing and sneezing. The “ashes” referred to the burning of bodies and “ all fall down” is exactly what happened, Death.
By 1951 this myth seems to have become well established as an explanation for the specific form of the rhyme that had become standard in the United Kingdom.
SOMETIMES, A FLOWER IS JUST A FLOWER
The more recent scholars argue that the connection of the rhyme with the great plague is overstated. Modern folklorists argue that the symptoms do not especially fit the great plague. They state that the red ring symptom was not really that common of a plague symptom, to begin with, and also they argue that had the rhyme been born in that period, its lyrics would have undergone more radical changes. Also, the rhyme did not appear in print until the late 1800s, hundreds of years after the plague. Nevertheless, folklorists suggest that perhaps we should be more careful about what our urban legend suggests.
But since there isn’t enough evidence to believe either side of the story, Maybe the dark interpretation of the rhyme could be truthful after all. If so, I wonder what other sweet, innocent naive rhymes are a mere disguise to cover up the chilling malice of death.
