[Lyric] Down in a Coal Mine (Joseph B. Geoghegan)

[Verse 1]
I am a jovial collier lad, and blithe as blithe can be
For let the times be good or bad they're all the same to me
'Tis little of the world I know and care less for its ways
For where the dog star never glows, I wear away my days

[Chorus]
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found
Digging dusky diamonds all the season round
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground

[Verse 2]
My hands are horny hard and black, with working in the vein
And like the clothes upon my back my speech is rough and plain
Well if I stumble with my tongue, I've one excuse to say
'Tis not the colliers heart that's wrong. 'Tis th' head that goes astray

[Chorus]
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found
Digging dusky diamonds all the season round
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground
[Verse 3]
At ev'ry shift be't soon or late, I haste my bread to earn
And anxiously my kindred wait and watch for my return
For Death that levels all alike whate'er their rank may be
A mid the fire and damp may strike, and fling his darts at me

[Chorus]
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found
Digging dusky diamonds all the season round
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground

[Verse 4]
How little do the great ones care, who sit at home secure
What hidden dangers colliers dare, what hardships they endure
The very fires their manions boast to cheer themselves and wives
Mayhap were kindled at the cost, of jovial colliers lives

[Chorus]
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found
Digging dusky diamonds all the season round
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground

[Verse 5]
Then cheer up lads and make ye much, of ev'ry joy ye can
But let your mirth be always such as best becomes a man
How ever Fortune turns about we'll still be jovial souls
For what would England be without, the lads that look for coals
[Chorus]
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground
Where a gleam of sunshine never can be found
Digging dusky diamonds all the season round
Down in a coal mine underneath the ground