Ring around the rosie
Pocket full of posie
Ashes ashes
We all fall down
—Some internet sources say that it’s false. They are false.
“Ring around the rosie,
A pocket full of posies;
[one of the superstitious ways used by people in the Middle Ages to try and fend off the plague was to stuff their pockets with posies (flowers)]
Atischoo, atischoo,
[sneezing was also an early sign of the plague if it was a pneumonic plague; however, not all types of plague involved sneezing]
or, Ashes, ashes
[the dead were often cremated]
We all fall down.
[most of the people strickened with the plague died]”
Sewer History dot com…
But if you want more academic sources, search it in Google Books.
Check out: What Did I Just Say!?!: How New Insights Into Childhood Thinking Can Help …
By Denis Donovan, M.D., Deborah McIntyre, R.N.