Creepy Nursery Rhymes

I found myself humming in the shower yesterday, as I do from time to time. I was humming the nursery rhyme, "Rock-a-bye baby." I had never really paid attention to the lyrics before but yesterday I noticed that it is a SCARY song. Even the melody is unsettling. In my mind's eye, I can picture Andrea Yates humming this tune as she drowned each of her five children. This realization inspired me to do some research on some other songs that my mother used to rock me to sleep with as a babe. And now, without further ado, the panel (of one) presents, the Five Creepiest Nursery Rhymes of All Time.



5.

Ladybug, Ladybug, fly away home.
Your house is on fire, your children are gone.
All except one, her name is Nan.
She crept under a frying pan.

In Medieval England, farmers would burn old hop (used in brewing beer) vines after harvest to clear the fields for the next crop. This rhyme was sung to warn the ladybugs that were still hanging out on the vines gobbling aphids for dinner. The ladybugs' children (larvae) could get away from the flames, but the pupae were fastened to the plants and thus could not escape. Lyrics about the burning of children (be they bugs or not) earn "Ladybug, Ladybug" a spot on the list.


4.

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.

This song may refer to King Louis XVI of France (Jack), who was beheaded, and his wife, Marie-Antoinette (Jill) who lost her own head soon after.


3.

Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

According to wikipedia, this old nursery rhyme is said to have been written by a young pilgrim who came to America aboard the Mayflower. He observed how native-American women rocked their babies in birch-bark cradles, which were suspended from the branches of trees, allowing the wind to rock the baby to sleep. The branches holding the cradles, however, sometimes had a habit of breaking, causing the cradle to fall and the baby in it to get hurt.


2.

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

Take a key and lock her up,
Lock her up, Lock her up.
Take a key and lock her up,
My fair lady.

One theory about the lyrics to this song is that they refer to an old English practice of burying a dead virgin in the foundations of the bridge to ensure its strength through magical means. Morbid, no?


1.

Ring around the rosies,
A pocketful of posies.
ashes, ashes.
We all fall down.

A popular interpretation of this daycare classic connects it with the Great Plague of London in 1665. A rosy rash was the first sign of infection. Posies were carried around because of their supposed protective properties. The word 'ashes' is a corruption of the sound of the sneezing that was a symptom of the plague. Finally, 'all falling down' was exactly what everyone did. On the playground we always got right back up again. Those unlucky souls who were the subject of this poem, however, did not.