# Ring a Ring o’ Roses

“Ring a Ring o’ Roses” is an English children’s ring game documented from 1881; this page separates a historical print stanza from a modern UK classroom version with a “fishes” verse.

## At a glance

| | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Sung in | English |
| Words by | Traditional |
| First known | 1881 (earliest English printing traced by the Library of Congress) |
| Best for ages | 2–7 |
| Mood | dancing, traditional, playful |
| Page | https://littlesongbook.com/songs/ring-a-ring-o-roses/ |

## Lyrics

### Verse 1 (en)

Ring a ring o’ roses,
A pocket full of posies;
Hush! hush! hush!
And we all tumble down.

### Verse 2 (en)

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

Fishes in the water,
Fishes in the sea,
We all jump up
With a one, two, three!

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

## How to sing it

1. Form a circle, hold hands, and walk steadily around while singing the roses stanza.
2. On “we all fall down”, crouch together instead of pulling anyone to the floor; during the fishes verse, make swimming motions while staying low.
3. Count “one, two, three”, jump up together, and use the repeated roses stanza to finish the classroom sequence.

## Common questions

**Is “Ring a Ring o’ Roses” about the plague?**

No reliable early evidence connects the rhyme with plague. The Library of Congress notes that the plague explanation appeared only in the mid-twentieth century and does not fit the many older variants.

**Why are there two lyric versions on this page?**

There is no single original text. The first panel preserves L. Leslie Brooke’s 1922 print stanza; the second gives the supplied modern classroom sequence, whose roses-and-fishes core is also published by the National Literacy Trust’s Words for Life programme.

**What do children do during the modern “fishes” verse?**

After crouching on “we all fall down”, children can mime swimming for the fishes lines, count together, and jump back up on “three”. The final roses stanza repeats the circle game to close the supplied sequence.

## Sources

- [Library of Congress — Ring Around the Rosie: Metafolklore, Rhyme and Reason](https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/07/ring-around-the-rosie-metafolklore-rhyme-and-reason/)
- [A. B. Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, vol. II (1898)](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41728)
- [L. Leslie Brooke, Ring O’ Roses (Project Gutenberg transcription; title page undated)](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20652)
- [L. Leslie Brooke, Ring O’ Roses — Internet Archive copy, catalogued as F. Warne, London and New York, [1922]](https://archive.org/details/ringorosesnurser00broo)
- [National Literacy Trust, Words for Life — Ring-a-ring o’ roses](https://wordsforlife.org.uk/activities/ring-a-ring-o-roses/)