The real meaning of Nursery Rhymes

Happy Chicks by Anna Sidney

This weekend has been an endless series of autumnal downpours and by Sunday morning as I stood at my kitchen sink watching yet another rush across the sky, the nursery rhyme 'it's raining it's pouring' sprung to mind. Nothing too peculiar about that, but then my mind started to try and find the lines that follow and I wondered what might have become of the poor man who banged his head and what meaning this rhyme might of had. An internet search ensued and while I didn't get to the bottom of this mysterious rhyme, I did discover some other meanings to some popular nursery rhymes.

Some of which might surprise you, of course most nursery rhymes were never even intended for children originally. Many were political statements, drowned in nonsense to protect the singer from being prosecuted for treason, and set to a fun melody that was easy to remember and pass along.

Warning you may not sing them in the same way again...

IT’S RAINING, IT’S POURING:

It’s raining, it’s pouring,
The old man’s snoring.
He got into bed
And bumped his head
And couldn’t get up in the morning.

Children of the mid-twentieth century used to amuse themselves on rainy days by imagining the deaths of the elderly and putting their fantasy to a jaunty tune. He couldn’t get up because he was dead, not extra tired from bumping his head in the night. Dead. 

RING AROUND THE ROSES: 

Ring-a-ring-a-roses,
A pocket full of posies
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down.

In 1665, the bubonic plague struck London hard, killing 20 percent of the population within a year. “Ring o’ Roses” is said to indicate a rosy rash that spread across the victims’ bodies, while “a pocket full of posies” was used to ward off the smell of disease. Obviously, the “ashes, ashes” that come falling down are the remnants of cremated dead bodies.

THE ABOVE IS NOT TRUE....

Ring around the Roses isn’t actually about the bubonic plague, it’s just a popular myth! According to snopes.com it may have arose because of the religious ban on dancing in the 19th century Protestant area in Britain and North America. 

Young adults found a way around it by this rhyme. Going around in circles wasn’t really “dancing”. The rhyme itself has no particular meaning, it just sounded good. 

I'm still not sure if I would rather believe the myth version of this rhyme, as I went to school in Derbyshire near Eyam and regularly visited this charming village so famed by the plague and we always sung this song. In fact it was the first rhyme I learnt had a hidden meaning.

ROCK A BYE BABY: 

Hush-a-bye baby
On the tree top,
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock.
When the bough breaks,
The cradle will fall,
And down will fall baby
Cradle and all.

In the original publication of the rhyme, this is what was said “This may serve as a Warning to the Proud and Ambitious, who climb so high that they may generally fall at last.” That baby is a goner.

THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE:

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

Just a poor women trying to feed her kids right? Wrong. Read the ending of the original version.

When she came back 
They were a'lying dead
She went to the wright
To get them a coffin
When she came back
They were a'lying laughing
She gamed up the stair
To ring the bell
The bell-rope broke
And down she fell

SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE:

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes;
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.

In this rhyme a maid’s nose is pecked off by blackbirds, because she made a blackbird pie. In the original rhyme, it’s not birds that are baked into the pies, but “four and twenty naughty boys”

LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN:

You probably have heard of this verse:

London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.

It makes references to the famous stone bridge that was commissioned by Henry II in the late-1100s. It’s a simple song that lists different materials to try to keep the bridge from collapsing.

But have you heard of this verse?

Set a man to watch all night,
Watch all night, watch all night,
Set a man to watch all night,
My fair lady

Seems like a watchman to guard the structure right?

WRONG.

Legend has it, living people were built into the foundations of walls and gates “to serve as guardian spirits.”

RUB A DUB DUB:

Rub a dub dub

Three men in a tub

And how do you think they got there?

The butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker

It was enough to make a man stare.





At first it’s a bit homoerotic… then we read the original, or at least the oldest known version:





Rub a dub dub

Three maids in a tub

And how do you think they got there?

The butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker

And all of them gone to the fair.





Well, it sounds like a peep show might be in town. Peep shows were a popular form of entertainment in the 14th century, and it appears that our friends have gone to catch a glimpse of the maids in the tub.

BAA, BAA BLACK SHEEP:

Baa baa black sheep,

Have you any wool?

Yes sir, yes sir,

Three bags full.

One for the Master, 

One for the Dame,

And one for the little boy

Who lives down the lane.





And with the original ending…



And none for the little boy 
who cries down the lane.





It’s about taxes! Back in the 13th century, King Edward I realized that he could make some decent cash by taxing the sheep farmers.

As a result of the new taxes, one third of the price of a sack of wool went to the king, one third to the church and the last third to the farmer. Nothing was left for the shepherd boy, crying down the lane. As it happens, black sheep are also bad luck: the fleece can’t be dyed, and so it’s worth less to the sheep farmer.