Meaning of ‘Ring Around the Rosie’

The Dark Truth Behind the Most Popular Nursery Rhyme

To this day, nursery rhymes play an integral part in people’s childhood. Most of these catchy rhymes tend to be centered around a few of our favorite pests- namely rats and mice. Have you ever stopped to wonder about the history of some of these poems? Looking a little closer proves to be quite intriguing.

Ring around the rosy
A pocketful of posies
Ashes, Ashes
We all fall down! 

Rats & The Great Plague of London

“Ring Around The Rosy” is one of the most popular rhymes. It refers to the historical time known as the Great Plague of London in 1665, also commonly called The Black Plague.

“Ring around the rosy” and “pocketful of posies,” while fun to sing, have very real meanings in the context of the plague. “Ring around the rosy” signifies a red ring-shaped rash that would appear on the skin of the infected, and “pocketful of posies” refers to the supposed sweet smelling herbal remedies people carried around in their pockets. Just like today, the rats served as hosts to the disease and transferred it to humans. The plague is believed to have killed over 60 percent of London’s population, a staggering statistic. The deaths were only halted, many claim, by The Great Fire of London in 1666 which killed off the infected rats.

Although this happened over 300 years ago and the magnitude of deaths would likely never reach that of The Black Plague, the bitter reality is that rats can and do carry numerous diseases. If you remember last week’s pest control post, “What if the world was run by rats?”, rats can carry over 70 different diseases, some of them deadly. Now let’s not go overboard, the potential rats and mice in your walls aren’t actually carrying the plague, but it’s still a good idea to seek professional help. A pocketful of posies will not help you ward off those pesky rats, but rest assured that our pest control technicians can take care of them humanely and efficiently.