In class the other day we looked at the nursery rhyme “Vintery, Mintery, Curery, Corn” due to the title of Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. After analyzing the poem and seeing it in regards to Kesey’s novel, the nursery rhyme seemed a little creepy to me. It surprised me that parents read it to their children. This made me think back to the common nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosy.” My older cousin once told me that it really related to history so I looked it up and found out that it does. It comes from the Bubonic Plague in England. The plague caused a rosy red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin, “ring around the rosy.” People of the time believed that the disease came from bad smells so they would carry around sweet herbs, “a pocket full posies.” This disease created over a 60% death rate which caused the line “ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” The nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” also holds another meaning. This rhyme refers to Mary Tudor, also known as Bloody Mary, a Catholic Queen in England who killed Protestants. Her “garden” means the graveyard she created, “silver bells and cockleshells” include torture devices of the time period and “the maids” are another term for guillotines. After learning of these deeper meaning behind the catchy rhymes, they really scare me. I think of all the times when I made the kids sing “Ring Around the Rosy” when I taught swimming lessons and how creepy it seems now. I question how these became common rhymes for children and why we continue to read them to them as babies.
Kathryn, I completely agree with your disturbance at these nursery rhymes. When I discovered the true meaning to "Ring Around the Rosy", I was shocked and alarmed that such a depressing song would continue to be taught to young children. I was not aware of the hidden meaning of "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary", but thank you for that enlightenment, as I now know add that to my list of Nursery Rhymes Never to Sing to Children.
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