Growing up, hand games had always kept me occupied. It wasn't until my third year of high school that I understood the meaning of them all. The jingle "Ring Around the Rosie" was a popular game that ever child played and continues today. The story behind the song is something I will always remember whenever I hear these words:
Ring around the rosie,
A pocket full of posies.
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!
The actual story behind this song is a disease called the Black Plague, which occurred in England during the late 1340's. Each line of the song holds its own meaning. "Ring around the rosie," refers to a symptom of the disease, looking like a red circular rash. People, then, believed that a flower could protect them from the plague, "A pocket full of posies." "Ashes! Ashes!" is an imitation of sneezing; and lastly, "we all fall down," is the country's loss and down fall after the Black Plague.Ring around the rosie,
A pocket full of posies.
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down!
Resources: Mikkelson, Barbara and David. "Ring Around the Rosie." Snopes.com. Urban Legends Reference Pages. Web. 24 May 2012.
i like how you chose to use a nursery rhyme that has a hidden meaning because most people do not actually know that the rhyme is about the black plague. but at the same, i liked how you explained each line for what it actually meant during the time of the plague.
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