Tank's Poetry
united states mine rescue association
Mine Disasters in the United States
 


Mining Music

Dark as a Dungeon
Written by Merle Travis
Performed by Johnny Cash


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Oh, come all you young fellers, so young and so fine
And seek not your fortunes way down in the mine
It will form like a habit and seep in your soul
'Til the stream of your blood flows as black as the coal

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine

There is many a man I have seen in my day
Who lived just to labor his whole life away
Like the fiend with his dope and the drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mine

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine

I hope when I'm dead and the ages shall roll
That my body will blacken and turn into coal
I will look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a' diggin' my bones

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mine



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