In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia

Down in the dark of the Cumberland Mine

there´s blood on the coalmen and the miners lie

In the roads that never saw sun nor sky



In the town of Springhill you don´t sleep easy

Often the earth will tremble and roll

When the earth is restless miners die

Bone and blood is the price of coal



In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia

Late in the year of fifty-eight

Day still comes and the sun still shines

But it´s dark as the grave in the Cumberland mine



Down at the coal face miners working

Rattle of the belt and the cutter´s blade

Rumble of the rock and the walls closed round

The living and the dead men two miles down



Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft

Twelve men lay in the dark and sang

Long hot days in the miners tomb

It was three feet high and a hundred long



Three days past and the lamps gave out

Our foreman rose on his elbow and said

We´re out of light and water and bread

So we´ll live on song and hope instead