Thanks Jen!
I've been trying to help you with your nursery rhyme analysis, but I'm not having any luck either. One site says they're instruments of torture!![]()
I always just assumed that they were herbs/compost.
Good luck with your lesson!![]()
Well, it depends on who you are teaching the nursery rhymes to. Most nursery rhymes were written to teach moral lessons. So, Mistress Mary, quite contrary, was actually the queen Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary as she came to be called. Her "garden" was literally the hundreds of Protestants that she tortured and ultimately burned.
However, it had to be couched in terms that wouldn't offend said queen. Thus, every part of the rhyme can also be very innocent, with the silver bells and cockle shells references to flowers that were common at the time.
Ring Around the Rosy was a way for parents to warn their children about the plague and what would happen. The first sign of the plague was a red spot that had a darker ring of red around it. A pocket full of posies, was simply a way to ward off the plague. People would carry herbs in their pockets as a way to keep the plague away. Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down, was in reference to the burning of plague bodies, and how no family was spared from the plague.
Most nursery rhymes have a very darker meaning when you start delving into them, however, I don't think I'd bring that up to very small children!