DARK AS A DUNGEON

(by Merle Travis)

Come and listen you fellows, so young and so fine,
And seek not your fortune in the dark, dreary mines.
It will form as a habit and seep in your soul,
'Till the stream of your blood is as black as the coal.

	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 mine.

It's a-many a man I have seen in my day,
Who lived 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.

	It's dark as a dungeon ...
	
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.

	It's dark as a dungeon ...
	
The midnight, the morning, or the middle of day,
Is the same to the miner who labors away.
Where the demons of death often come by surprise,
One fall of the slate and you're buried alive. 

	It's dark as a dungeon ...

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