Come and listen you fellows, so young and so fine And seek not your fortunes in the dark dreary mines It will 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 It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines It's a many a man I have known in my day Who lived just to labour his whole life away Like a fiend with his dope, or 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 danger is double and pleasures are few Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines INTERLUDE: Well, the midnight or the morning or the middle of day Is the same to the miner digging away Where the demons of death often come by surprise One fall of the slate and you're buried alive 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 It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines Well, 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 digging my bones 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 It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines Oh, it's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines