What is the poem "bloody mary" about?

Question:

What is the poem "bloody mary" about?

Can euu plz oso tell me the poem and about the person's (bloody mary) bio? Ty! muck

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Mary, Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

Like many nursery rhymes, it has acquired spurious historical explanations.

One is that it refers to Mary I of Scotland, with "how does your garden grow" referring to her reign, "silver bells" referring to (Catholic) cathedral bells, "cockleshells" insinuating that her husband cheated on her, and "pretty maids all in a row" referring to her babies that died.

Another is that it refers to Mary I of England and her unpopular attempts to bring Roman Catholicism back to England, identifying the "cockle shells," for example, with the symbol of pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint James in Spain (Santiago de Compostela) and the "pretty maids all in a row" with nuns.

These explanations vary; it is identified with Mary I of England for roughly the same reasons as with her Scottish counterpart; her husband Phillip II of Spain was barely interested in her (hence the word "cockleshells"), the "How does your garden grow?" being a mockery of her womb (and her inability to produce heirs) or the common idea that England had became a Catholic vassal or "branch" of Spain and the Habsburgs, or a punning reference to her chief minister, Stephen Gardiner ("gardener").

"Quite contrary" could be a reference to her unsuccessful attempt to reverse church reforms made by her father Henry VIII and brother Edward VI.

The "pretty maids all in a row" could be a reference to miscarriages as with the other Mary or her execution of Lady Jane Grey after coming to the throne.

"Rows and rows" may refer to her infamous burnings and executions of Protestants.

Alternatively, capitalising on the queen's portrayal by Whig historians as 'Bloody Mary', 'how does your garden grow' could be an allusion to graveyards which were increasing in size with those who dared to continue to adhere to the Protestant faith -Protestant martyrs.

The "silver bells and cockle shells" referred to in the nursery rhyme could be colloquialisms for instruments of torture.

The 'silver bells' may refer to thumbscrews, while the 'cockleshells' are thought to have been instruments of torture which were attached to the genitals.

Finally, 'maids' might be a reference to 'maidens' which were early guillotine-like devices used to sever heads.

Still, some argue that no proof has been found that the rhyme was known before the eighteenth century, while Mary I of England and Mary I of Scotland were contemporaries in the sixteenth century. Some historians suggest that the song was invented by Protestants and Anglicans to mock the reign of either Mary at the time or long afterwards.