ring+a+ring+a’+rosy

 ** Ring a Ring o' Roses ** " or "**Ring Around the Rosie**" is a [|nursery rhyme] or [|folksong] and [|playground] [|singing game]. It first appeared in print in 1881; but it is reported that a version was already being sung to the current tune in the 1790s. It has a [|Roud Folk Song Index] number of 7925. //A pocketful of posies.// //a-tissue!, a-tissue!.// //We all fall down//. || //A pocketful of posies.// //ashes, ashes.// //We all fall down!//. || //A pocket full of posies.// //Hush-a, hush-a.// //We all fall down.// || //A pocketful of posies// //a tissue, a tissue.// //We all fall down.// || //We all jump up!// || //Pocket full of poses.// //Husha, Busha.// //We all fall down.// || //Za čtyři rýnský,// //Kolo se nám polámalo,// //Mnoho škody nadělalo,// //Udělalo bác!// || //Pocket full of posies.// //Upstairs, downstairs.// //We all fall down.// || //picking up the roses,// //Atishoo!, Atishoo!// //We all jump up.// || //picking up the daises,// //Atishoo!, Atishoo!// //We all jump up.// || //Ashes in the sea,// //We all jump up// //With a one-two-three.// || //To fetch a pail of water.// //ah-tishoo, ah-tishoo.// //We all fall down//. || //Sits high above the people.// //ah-tishoo, ah-tishoo.// //We all fall down//. || //Eating buttercups,// //ah-tishoo, ah-tishoo.// //they all jump up//. || //Fishes in the sea,// //We all jump up,// //With a one, two, three!// || //How many fishes can you see,// //We all jump up,// //With a one, two, three!// || //Catching fishes, for my tea!// //We all jump up,// //With a one, two, three!// || //Eating buttercups,// //ah-tishoo, ah-tishoo.// //We all jump up!// || //Eating all the grass,// //ah-tishoo, ah-tishoo.// //Who's up last?// || //We all pop up!// || //Sleeping, Sleeping,// //Lightning, Lightning.// //We all jump up!// || //Daddy in the cup.// //One, two, three// //And we all jump up!// || //eating buttercups.// //thunder, lightning// //We all stand up!// ||
 * Current versions **
 * **Location ** || **Lyrics ** ||
 * In the [|United Kingdom], [|Ireland], and [|South Africa], it is usually sung: || //Ring a-ring o' roses //,
 * In the [|United States] it is usually sung: || //Ring around the rosy //,
 * In [|Canada], it is usually sung: || //Ring around the rosey //,
 * In [|Australia] and in [|New Zealand], it is usually sung: || //Ring a ring a rosey //
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Followed by: || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">When our mother calls us, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In [|India], it is usually sung: || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Ring-a Ring-a roses //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">,
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In [|Czech Republic] it is usually sung: || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Kolo kolo mlýnský //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">In [|Louisiana] and some parts of [|Southeast Texas], it is usually sung: || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Ring around the rosey //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">,
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Other verses in the [|UK]: || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Picking up the roses, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Picking up the daises, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Ashes in the water, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The King has sent his daughter, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The bird up on the steeple, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The cows are in the meadow, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Fishes in the water, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Down at the bottom of the deep blue sea, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Sitting at the bottom of the deep blue sea, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Other verses elsewhere: || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Cows are in the clover, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Cows are in the meadow, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Bringing up the posies, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">The cows are in the pasture, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Mammy in the teapot, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">
 * ^  || //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">Cows in the meadow, //<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;">

Plague interpretation
Many have associated the poem with the [|Great Plague of London] in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of [|bubonic plague] in [|England]. Interpreters of the rhyme before [|World War II] make no mention of this;[|[15]] by 1951, however, it seems to have become well established as an explanation for the form of the rhyme that had become standard in Britain. [|Peter and Iona Opie] remark[|[16]]: ‘The invariable sneezing and falling down in modern English versions have given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, [|posies] of herbs were carried as protection, [|sneezing] was a final fatal symptom, and “all fall down” was exactly what happened.’ Another translation://Ring around the Rosie//: people with the plague often had a bright rose-colored rash that people would see and make a large ring around them. //A pocket full of posies//: people without the plague often carried around posies, believing this would purify the air and protect them from getting ill. //Ashes, Ashes//: When people died, sometimes they would be burnt to ashes. Then those ashes would be put in a jar and buried. In this way, there was enough room in the graveyards for everyone. //We all fall down//: ‘falling down’ meant dying and many people did die. [|[17]] Variations of the same theory allow it to be applied to the American version of the rhyme and to medieval plagues.[|[18]] In its various forms, the interpretation has entered into popular culture and has been used elsewhere to make oblique reference to the plague.[|[19]] (For 'hidden meaning' in other nursery rhymes see [|Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary], [|Humpty Dumpty] , [|Jack Be Nimble] , [|Little Jack Horner] , [|Cock Robin] and [|Meanings of nursery rhymes] .) But folklore scholars regard the theory as baseless for several reasons: []
 * 1)  the late appearance of the explanation means that it has no tradition, only the value of its content;[|[15]]
 * 2)  the symptoms described do not fit especially well with the Great Plague;[|[17]][|[20]]
 * 3)  the great variety of forms make it unlikely that the modern form is the most ancient one, and the words on which the interpretation are based are not found in many of the earliest records of the rhyme (see above);[|[18]][|[21]]
 * 4)  European and 19th century versions of the rhyme suggest that this 'fall' was not a literal falling down, but a [|curtsy] or other form of bending movement that was common in other dramatic singing games.[|[22]]