Actually, it makes as much sense as the rest of the song...

[khiemtran]

K - Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket...
L - Full of rye!
K - Four-and-twenty blackbirds...
L - Baked in honey!

Comments

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, while the song seems pretty straightforward - live birds in pies are apparently documented as a party trick at wealthy banquets - there are some attempts at allegorical explanations, including one where the blackbirds are manorial titles sent in a pie to Henry VIII by the abbot of Glastonbury and which may link into the Little Jack Horner nursery rhyme. It seems to be a popular theme in nursery rhymes that can be simplified or even ironic commentaries on real-life events. Ring a ring a rosy springs to mind and also Jack and Jill which iirc refers to a little more than a physical mis-step. :) And of course, presumably Mr Liem was pre-empting the second verse where the Queen is indeed eating bread and honey! *g*

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the most likely explanation. He does know the right words, but he normally just has to do the last word of each line.

Incidentally, I thought the plague explanation of ring a ring a rosy had been discredited lately, but I can't remember the details. It's interesting from a writing point of view, because you do get good at looking at a seemingly random plot and suddenly seeing a higher purpose, and the question is whether it came from your backbrain and was in there all the time, or if you've just happened to find an inevitable match with one pattern or another.