Stephen Vincent wrote:
> It's ironic how - the flip side of these gothic rhyme accounts (and let's not forge the crematory one it is said that originates in the plague, 'Ring around the rosies...ashes, ashes all fall down') is the soothing character of children's lullabies, 'Row row your boat...", "Rock a bye baby in the tree top'. or 'There was an old woman who lived in a shoe...'
>
Right, there's that element of real ugliness in some of them. I never
heard of a crematory version of Ring Around The Rosy, but heard of one
of its origins in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Black
Death. Oldies but not so goodies.
When I worked for the NYC Welfare Department back in 1968-9, we turned
one of the rhymes into "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe / She
had so many children she went of Relief." Lousy scansion, nasty
sentiment, and street reality.
kw
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Ken Wolman http://awfulrowing.wordpress.com/ http://www.petsit.com/content317832.html
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"All writers are hunters, and parents are the most available prey."--Francine du Plessix Gray
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