Come all you young fellows so young and so fine

And seek not your fortune way down in the mine

It will form like a habit and seep in your soul

Till the stream of your blood flows as black as the coal



(Chorus:)

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew

The danger is doubled 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's 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 can have lust for the lure of the mine



(Chorus)



Oh when I am dead 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-digging my bones



(Chorus)