Is it true that most nursery rhymes have very morbid roots?
Yes, no, and sort of. For instance, this site about nursery rhymes claims that Ring Around the Rosy dates back to the Great Plague of London in 1665. But party-pooper Snopes debunks this as “nonsense,” tracing that interpretation to a 1961 book. The more likely explanation, says one historian, relates to the 19th century Protestant religious ban on dancing. Wikipedia writes that “generally nursery rhymes are innocent doggerel… Urban legends abound with regard to some of the rhymes, though most of these have been discredited.” A spoof posted
