Ring a Ring o' Roses
（重定向自Ring a ring o roses）
![](/Images/godic/202502/07/RingARingORosesMusic18982428.png")
![The cover of L. Leslie Brooke's, Ring O' Roses (1922), shows nursery rhyme characters performing the game](/Images/godic/202502/07/BrookeRingO'Roses2429.jpg")
![Kate Greenaway's illustration from Mother Goose or the Old Nursery Rhymes (1881), showing children playing the game](/Images/godic/202502/07/Ring-a-ring-a-roses2429.jpg")
![Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith, from The Little Mother Goose (1912)](/Images/godic/202502/07/Ring-a-round-a_rosesSmith2429.jpg")
"Ring a Ring o' Roses" or "Ring Around the Rosie" is a nursery rhyme or folksong and playground singing game. It first appeared in print in 1881, but it is reported that a version was already being sung to the current tune in the 1790s and similar rhymes are known from across Europe. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7925. Urban legend says the song originally described the plague, specifically the Great Plague of London, but folklorists reject this idea.