"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 and similar rhymes are known from across Europe. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7925. Urban legend says the song originally described the plague, but folklorists reject this idea.
Read more about Ring A Ring O' Roses: Lyrics, Plague Interpretation
Famous quotes containing the words ring a, ring and/or roses:
“But whatever happens, wherever the scene is laid, somebody, somewhere, will quietly set out—somebody has already set out, somebody still rather far away is buying a ticket, is boarding a bus, a ship, a plane, has landed, is walking toward a million photographers, and presently he will ring at my door—a bigger, more respectable, more competent Gradus.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Rich and rare were the gems she wore,
And a bright gold ring on her hand she bore.”
—Thomas Moore (1779–1852)
“O night,
you take the petals
of the roses in your hand,
but leave the stark core
of the rose
to perish on the branch.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)