In many versions of the game, a group of children forms a ring, dances in a circle around one person, and then stoops or curtsies on the final line.

The slowest child to perform this action may face a penalty or become the "rosie" (literally: rose tree, from the French rosier), taking their place in the center of the ring.

Before the final line, the children suddenly stop, then shout it together, "suiting the action to the word with unfailing hilarity and complete satisfaction.

[7] Newell notes that "[a]t the end of the words the children suddenly stoop, and the last to get down undergoes some penalty, or has to take the place of the child in the centre, who represents the 'rosie' (rose-tree; French, rosier).

This rhyme, which appears in the popular collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, is well known in Germany and has many local variations.

[20] The Florentine artist Raffaello Sorbi brought a similar scene into the Renaissance setting with his 1877 work Girotondo (Round Dance), where young maidens circle a child at the center to instrumental accompaniment.

[24] Two other artists associated with the Newlyn School also depicted the game: Elizabeth Adela Forbes in 1880[25] and Harold Harvey in a later work.

Folklore scholars consider the popular explanation linking it to the Great Plague, which has been common since the mid-20th century, to be unfounded.

It cites a passage that reads, "Gifted children of fortune have the power to laugh roses, as Freyja wept gold," suggesting that the game’s origins may involve pagan beings of light.

Another interpretation is more literal, proposing that it involved making a "ring" around roses and ending with "all fall down" as a kind of curtsy.

[27] In 1892, the American writer Eugene Field wrote a poem titled Teeny-Weeny, which specifically described fay folk playing ring-a-rosie.

A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, and posies of herbs were carried as protection and to ward off the smell of the disease.

[32] In its various forms, this interpretation has entered popular culture and has been referenced to make indirect connections to the plague.

[33] In 1949, a parodist created a version referencing radiation sickness: Ring-a-ring-o'-geranium, A pocket full of uranium, Hiro, shima All fall down!

[34] In March 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, the traditional rhyme was humorously suggested as the "ideal choice" of song to accompany hand-washing to ward off infection.