Come and listen you fellers so young and so fine
And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mines
It'll form as a habit and seep in your soul
'Til the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal
Where It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where danger is double and pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
Where It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines
There's many a man I've known in my day
Who live just to labor his whole life away
Like a fiend with his dope and a drunkard his wine
A man will have lust for the lure of the mines
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
Where It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines
All the midnight are the morning
Are the middle of day
Is the same to the man who labors away
Where the demons of death
Often come by surprise
One fall of the slate
And youβre buried alive
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
Where It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines
I hope when I'm gone and the ages shall roll
My body will blacken and turn into coal
Then I'll look from the door of my heavenly home
And pity the miner a-diggin' my bones
Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is double and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
Where It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines