Do Nursery Rhymes have a more sinister meaning?Ringing the dust off London's bells.

reply to post by lifecitizen


Wasn't that used in an early simpsons episode?
Marge singing it to Maggie/Bart or Lisa,not sure which.But I remember them not being able to sleep.

CX LOL @rainbow sheep!

Also it used to go

eenie meenie miny mo
catch a 'n-word' by the toe


now they say something else- which I actually forget right this second- maybe someone else knows?

that one is fair enough though but baa baa rainbow sheep is ridiculous- like Bill and Ben being taken off the air due to them being gay or somethin'- as if kids thought anything like that

reply to post by gallifreyan medic


I should remember that as I've seen all the Simpsons episodes a million times but I dont... my parents are English, its an old English lullaby- Rock a bye baby

reply to post by CX


Despite it not being so called PC,it is still said the same but they do now add it with other colours.

Well my ex who was black never had a problem with it,nor do many other black people.They think its abit PC crazy.

oh, it edited out my n word and made it n word-

reply to post by lifecitizen


My daughter sings eenie meenie using the word butterfly.
As with the old,how did and when did that change get into circulation?

reply to post by gallifreyan medic


I dont know when that came about- only realised when kiddo was saying it one day pretty recently and he used another word- cant think right now what he used though it wasnt butterfly though...

We used to say catch a tiger by the toe. Even in the 50s and 60s my mom wouldn't let us use the n word.

reply to post by darkelf


Good old mums.
Gentle but could whoop your arse with just a word.

Weird.. I doubt theres anything sinister about nursery ryhmes even if their based off a tragic or sinister event.

reply to post by 4stral4pprentice


The meaning of more sinister was about the misinterpretation to some of them,that do have an underlying darker side to them.

Misinterpretation such as you have with your reply to the thread.

reply to post by gallifreyan medic


from what I remember being told about the ring of roses nursery rhyme when I was younger was the 'ring a ring of roses' was the physical outbreak of the black death on the body (red rash) a pocket full of posies was the herbs and other pouches of various items that were used to try and keep the plague away. and the atishoo bit was ... well obvious!

I dunno how true that is and im going to go find out on the link provided by CX now! (thats my afternoon taken up!) but I believed this was true and that other nursery rhymes had similar meanings - after all slaves used to use song to warn and direct others (I remember that from watching the Frash Prince! ) so why would an already disturbing rhyme not be a warning to remind children to carry their plague protection? On the same note I dont think it applies to ALL nursery rhymes though without the right frame of reference I think that may be hard to prove

Thanks for an interesting thread gallifreyan medic

[edit on 13-7-2009 by Enril]

reply to post by Enril


Thank you for the thank you.

I've been trying to find a clip from a programme (stop it it's right,it's bloody english,we invented it.Sorry getting that pain in the rear red line) called Q.I. which did explain some of the myths surrounding ring a ring of roses.

Can't seem to find it though,which is a bit of a bummer,as don't wish to wrongly quote what was said.Will update if can find it or will have to watch Dave.