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

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

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

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

(At every 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

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)

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

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

Then cheer up lads and make ye much, of every 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

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