The very first book I ever received was a Mother Goose book of nursery rhymes. Recently, my daughter found the book and asked me to read it with her. As we read, she became more and more shocked. She sees the nursery rhymes through modern, politically correct eyes. Nursery rhymes when viewed through modern eyes are pretty scary.
Don’t believe me? Just read them for yourself:
Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home,
Your house is on fire and your children are gone,
All except one and that’s little Anne,
For she crept under the frying pan.
A cautionary tale about working outside the home, I’m sure. Poor ladybug is probably out working when her house catches on fire and all her kids die except for Anne, who probably has 3rd degree burns from hiding under the frying pan.
Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater,
Had a wife and couldn’t keep her!
He put her in a pumpkin shell,
And there he kept her very well.
Oh, Peter. Sounds like you need to divorce that wife of yours for running around on you instead of keeping her hostage in a pumpkin shell.
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.
So she gave them some broth, without any bread,
And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.
There’s a shining example of good parenting right there. First she starves the children and then she beats them. Child abuse! Quick, someone call CPS!
Speaking of child abuse, what about this?
Little Polly Flinders
Sat among the cinders,
Warming her pretty little toes.
Mother came and caught her,
And whipped her pretty daughter
For spoiling her nice new clothes.
Why wasn’t anyone watching poor little Polly? Let your kid sit in a FIRE? And then beating the kid because she ruined her clothes? Chiiiiiild abuse!
But they’re not all bad, right? I mean, what about this one?
Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such a sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
A nice, gentle nonsense rhyme, with the cow jumping and the dog laughing and the dish…wait. The dish is running away with the spoon? Adultery! What is Mr. Fork going to think when he comes home and his wife has run off with the dish? Anarchy, I tell ya!
At least there’s still my favorite, nothing bad in there at all:
Ring around the rosie,
Pocket full of posies,
Ashes, ashes
We all fall down!
See? Nothing bad in that one at all. Ummm…what do you mean that one is about the bubonic plague? I guess we’ll go back to reading Where The Sidewalk Ends.
this stuff is really cool i totally love the peter,peter one this coming from a 12 year old
in the ring aroung the rosie one the last line is “we all fall dead” in the old books. that i have read.. pretty scary
Ring Around the Rosie is about people getting sick from rat pellets I believe. So,they actually filled their pockets with Posies to avoid the stench of corpses. Since they didn’t have deodorant they also used that to avoid stenches too. At the end,”ashes,ashes,we all fall down,” is because they burned the bodies or they threw the bodies in the street. Well, that’s that. = )
actually ring around the rosies is this
when the plague was aroung they would smell so they would put posies in thier pockets and sneezing would be the first simptoms of the plague also the rhyme is ring around the rosies a pocket full of posies atichu atichu we all fall down mening dead
“The first known mention of a plague interpretation of ‘Ring Around the Rosie’ didn’t show up until James Leasor published ‘The Plague and the Fire’ in 1961”:
http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp
…
here comes a candle to light you to bed,
here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Yeah that ladybug one is scary once you think about it
I don't like this website. What is wrong with you people. Sorry but GET A LIFE!
ring around the rosie (the ring you get et first when you get the disease)pockets fulll of posies(they put herbs in their pockets cause they thought the disease was from smelling bad)ashes ashes(when they burnt the bodies) we all fall down when they all die)
ring around the rosie (the ring you get et first when you get the disease)pockets fulll of posies(they put herbs in their pockets cause they thought the disease was from smelling bad)ashes ashes(when they burnt the bodies) we all fall down when they all die)
ring around the rosie (the ring you get et first when you get the disease)pockets fulll of posies(they put herbs in their pockets cause they thought the disease was from smelling bad)ashes ashes(when they burnt the bodies) we all fall down when they all die)
ring around the rosie (the ring you get et first when you get the disease)pockets fulll of posies(they put herbs in their pockets cause they thought the disease was from smelling bad)ashes ashes(when they burnt the bodies) we all fall down when they all die)
on ring around the rosie there is a lot of stuff thats wrong in it, it is about a sickness in Europe and lots of people dying and people bring flowers and for falling for there death
Yep, Ring Around the Rosie has always haunted me since I found out what it really meant!