Ring Around the Rosie

[LindseyA]

I was thinking about this as I just taught more DCKs this song - - I am wondering how many of you know the second verse to Ring Around the Rosie! Since none of my DCKs I have ever had (in almost 10 years!) knew it. I grew up singing both verses - my grandmother and mother taught me when I was a kid. We sing :

Ring around the Rosie,
Pockets full of posies,
Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down!

The cows are in the Meadow,
Eating buttercups!
Thunder (slap the floor)
Lightening (clap hands)
We all stand up!

So now I'm wondering if there are more verses to songs that are not very common!

[sleepinghart]

I was thinking about this as I just taught more DCKs this song - - I am wondering how many of you know the second verse to Ring Around the Rosie! Since none of my DCKs I have ever had (in almost 10 years!) knew it. I grew up singing both verses - my grandmother and mother taught me when I was a kid. We sing :

Ring around the Rosie,
Pockets full of posies,
Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down!

The cows are in the Meadow,
Eating buttercups!
Thunder (slap the floor)
Lightening (clap hands)
We all stand up!

So now I'm wondering if there are more verses to songs that are not very common!

~I still like, and believe it's okay to sing, "Ring Around The Rosie" even though many parents round here don't anymore because they believe it has plague origins and all. Anyway, this is how we sang it when I was little(just a bit different on the last line there I think):

"Ring around the Rosie,
Pockets full of posies,
Upstairs, Downstairs, we all fall down!"

[Josiegirl]

I only learned the 2nd verse within the past year. But that's the way we sing it all the time now.

[Mariahsaint]

Until about... well, right now, I only knew the first verse!

[Sunshine74]

Until about... well, right now, I only knew the first verse!

Same here. I like it!

[Unregistered]

One of the kids I had sang:

Ring around the rosy
Pocket full o' posies
Ashes, Ashes
We all fall down!


Picking up the daisies
Picking up the daisies
Up, up, up
We all stand up!

[Unregistered]

I learned this 2nd verse:
Sheep are in the meadow
Lying fast asleep
Ashes ashes
We all jump to our feet

It's all supposed to be related to the plague or something that killed lots of people and animals. The sleeping sheep are dead Cheery, hmm?

[Unregistered]

But then we also did this version:

Ring around a rocket
Try to catch a star
Stardust stardust
Fall where you are

[Josiegirl]

But then we also did this version:

Ring around a rocket
Try to catch a star
Stardust stardust
Fall where you are

That's cute!

[Unregistered]

I only used learned the second verse last year too. I learned
Cows are in the meadow eating buttercups
Ashes, ashes, we all stand up.



For years I've done

Ring around the rocket
Moonbeams in my pocket
Stardust, stardust
We all fall down!

[LindseyA]

OP here. I've heard of the black plague meaning behind this rhyme, so I just did a little research. (I know, I'm nerdy - but knowledge is power right?)
The black plague spread through Europe in 1347. By 1350 the plague killed one third of the world's population. The first publication of Ring Around the Rosie appeared in Kate Greenway's 'Mother Goose or Old Nursery Rhymes' in 1881. For this to REALLY be about the plague, we have to believe that children were reciting this for over 5 centuries, yet not one person found it popular enough to merit writing it down. There are no known examples of this rhyme in Middle English or Modern English forms.
To each his own! I say believe what you want. Just thought it was an interesting twist Again, sorry for my nerdy ways!

[sleepinghart]

OP here. I've heard of the black plague meaning behind this rhyme, so I just did a little research. (I know, I'm nerdy - but knowledge is power right?)
The black plague spread through Europe in 1347. By 1350 the plague killed one third of the world's population. The first publication of Ring Around the Rosie appeared in Kate Greenway's 'Mother Goose or Old Nursery Rhymes' in 1881. For this to REALLY be about the plague, we have to believe that children were reciting this for over 5 centuries, yet not one person found it popular enough to merit writing it down. There are no known examples of this rhyme in Middle English or Modern English forms.
To each his own! I say believe what you want. Just thought it was an interesting twist Again, sorry for my nerdy ways!

~Please don't be sorry! I'm glad you looked it uphappyface. It should have been looked up- I was too lazy to. Thank youlovethis!

[Alwaysgreener]

OP here. I've heard of the black plague meaning behind this rhyme, so I just did a little research. (I know, I'm nerdy - but knowledge is power right?)
The black plague spread through Europe in 1347. By 1350 the plague killed one third of the world's population. The first publication of Ring Around the Rosie appeared in Kate Greenway's 'Mother Goose or Old Nursery Rhymes' in 1881. For this to REALLY be about the plague, we have to believe that children were reciting this for over 5 centuries, yet not one person found it popular enough to merit writing it down. There are no known examples of this rhyme in Middle English or Modern English forms.
To each his own! I say believe what you want. Just thought it was an interesting twist Again, sorry for my nerdy ways!

I was told something similar by a home visitor when my dd was younger. She said a lot of the nursery rhymes were pretty morbid and that the rhymes were done to tell a story, in a way it would be easier to remember.
I am one that believes that "ring around rosie" is about death. However, I feel that there is nothing wrong to singing it as I have never heard of a child having a nightmare about a nursery rhyme. Unlike some of the other things that parents expose there kids too.