Ring a-ring o' roses

Ring a-ring o' roses,
A pocketful of posies.
a-tissue!, a-tissue!.
We all fall down.


A tragic history :
It was interesting to find that many have associated the above nursery rhyme with the Great Plague of London in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of bubonic plague in England.
The invariable sneezing and falling down have given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, posies of herbs were carried as protection, sneezing was a final fatal symptom , and 'all fall down' was exactly what happened The line Ashes, Ashes in alternative versions of the rhyme is claimed to refer variously to cremation of the bodies, the burning of victims' houses, or blackening of their skin, and the theory has been adapted to be applied to other versions of the rhyme, or other plagues. In its various forms, the interpretation has entered into popular culture and has been used elsewhere to make oblique reference to the plague.