Did Ring-A-Ring-A-Roses originate during the Great Plague of London?

The famous English rhyme ‘ring-a-ring-a-roses’ gets transcended to the children of every generation, however, it was revealed that the light-hearted poem was born during the Great Plague of London. According to a blog by James FitzGerald published in the Londonist, the lyrics of the centuries-old rhyme depicts a world full of death and disaster. James said that the apparently vibrant poem speaks of death and misery from another pandemic that had hit London and other parts of Europe. 

According to the blog, the rhyme was born sometimes in the 17th century in London during a plague that caused over 70,000 deaths in the city within a year. James said that the fatalism of the rhyme is brutal and ‘roses’ are a euphemism for deadly rashes. The Bubonic Plague or the Black Death had started in the middle of the 1300s. It lasted for hundreds of years and the plague was caused by a bacteria called the Yersinia pestis. 

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Rhyme is about the Great Plague 

In the blog, James wrote that the lyrics of the happy rhyme is all about the Great Plague. He explained that ‘posies’ in the poem was in reference to some kind of preventive measures. He went on to explain that ‘A-tishoo’, on the other hand, pointed to the sneezing symptoms. Further, he said that the ‘we all fall down’ signees everyone’s quick approaching death. 

Even though the rhyme might have found its origin in the death and misery, the poem has been widely adopted and modified through years. While James pointed out the sneezing and falling down symptoms, a report published in the Library of Congress suggests that there is no mention of such actions. 

As per reports, there are also counter-arguments that suggest that the popular rhyme did not originate from the Bubonic Plague. It is believed that the earliest print appearance of “Ring Around the Rosie” did not occur until the publication of Kate Greenaway’s Mother Goose or The Old Nursery Rhymes in 1881. However, if it were born during the pandemic, children recited the ‘nursery rhyme’ for over five centuries until someone wrote it down and published it. 

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