Nursery Rhyme by Sam Smith

‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses’: A Critical Essay, by Dr. Samuel Smith

‘It’s not the words that give a nursery rhyme a purpose, it’s the lyrics,’ said Daniel Batinski in his seminal essay on the subject of connotations and hidden meanings in nursery rhymes, titled ‘The Songs We Sang As Kids Were All Actually About Totally Dumb Stuff’ (New York: Idle Press, 1986). In the essay, he discussed the tale of the ‘Three Blind Mice’ as being an allegory about the songwriter developing a fear of unknowingly eating mice tails when having spaghetti bolognese for dinner and ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ obviously being a metaphor for performance enhancing drugs in 10-pin bowling tournaments, among others. However, there was one nursery rhyme missing from Batinski’s essay which I felt has some hidden meanings that are worth discussing; that nursery rhyme is ‘Ring a Ring o’ Roses.’

It is a deceptively short nursery rhyme, only one stanza long, although this does not stop it from being completely full of connotations intended by the author, whom has asked to remain anonymous due to reasons that will become evident further into this essay.

The focus on flowers throughout ‘Ring…’ suggests a positive atmosphere for the piece, but these are metaphors for a darker, disturbing topic, that of hoarding. The Oxford English Dictionary defines hoarding as ‘…The act of stockpiling a large number of items, to the point of being kind of ridiculous,’ (England: Oxford University Press, 2004). It has recently gained attention from major television networks and many shows have been made about the subject, but ‘Ring…’ is the first recorded reference to hoarding in popular media. The roses and posies mentioned shows that a collection is growing in the author’s house, probably including other well known flowers, such as daisies and stinging nettles. We can tell that the hoarding has become a problem, as the author points out that he has… ‘a pocketful of posies.’ He has run out of room in his house and is forced to carry around the collection in his trousers. Whether or not ‘Ring…’ is meant as a cautionary tale, a warning against hoarding, or as a small tip about finding space for more items, is still up in the air.

The last line of ‘Ring…’ is perhaps the most controversial for it’s time. ‘We all fall down.’ There are many interpretations of this, but the only one that is backed up by my intense research is that this refers to 1997, when our friendly neighbouring star, the Sun, decided to stop shining for us everyday. On the 31st of May, 1997, we were plunged into darkness as the Sun threw a small, interstellar tantrum and became selfish with the light emanating from its gargantuan mass for five months. This was a big subject in most newspapers for at least three weeks, inspiring incredibly creative headlines, such as ‘Dis-SUN-peared!’ from The Daily Mail (England: News Corp., 1997). Because there was no light, many people found falling over becoming a regular part of their day, so much so that in a survey carried out by The News of the World documented over 80% of people carried plasters around with them wherever they went (England: News Corp., 1997). The author wanted to reference this in ‘Ring…’ because falling over must have been a big part of his life in those five months.

Honestly, no matter how much research I did, I could find no interpretations for the third line, which consists of one repeated word; ‘Atishoo! Atishoo!’ While the repetition is obviously meant to emphasise the phrase, the meaning has obviously been lost to the ages. It is probably about having a cold or the Plague.

As we can see, ‘Ring…’ is an incredibly deep and complex nursery rhyme with many different ways to interpret every line, although the ones within this essay are more than likely the correct interpretations. It is a complete mystery as to why Batinski did not include it in ‘The Songs We Sang As Kids Were All Actually About Totally Dumb Stuff’. It is as if he thought that it was about something quite obvious and just ignored it. I suppose it is lucky that some of us cannot get out of an analytical mind frame when reading, no matter what it is. We are programmed that way. It is a blessing and a curse.