<P> An early version of the rhyme occurs in a novel of 1855, The Old Homestead by Ann S. Stephens: </P> <P> A ring--a ring of roses, Laps full of posies; Awake--awake! Now come and make A ring--a ring of roses . </P> <P> The novel goes on to describe a nineteenth - century Fourth of July celebration by children housed in a hospital in Roosevelt Island, New York (then known as "Blackwell's Island"):' Then the little girls began to seek their own amusements . They played "hide and seek," "ring, ring a rosy," and a thousand wild and pretty games' . </P> <P> Another early printing of the rhyme was in Kate Greenaway's 1881 edition of Mother Goose; or, the Old Nursery Rhymes: </P>

Who wrote the song ring around the rosie