Ballad of Spring Hill (Spring Hill Disaster) -- Peggy Seeger

Guest poem sent in by Dale Rosenberg

(Poem #1386) Ballad of Spring Hill (Spring Hill Disaster) In the town of Spring Hill, Nova Scotia, Down in the heart of the Cumberland Mine, There's blood on the coal and miners lie In the roads that never saw sun or sky Roads that never saw sun or sky. Down at the coal face the miner's workin' Rattle of the belt and the cutter's blade Crumble of rock and the walls close round Living and the dead men two miles down Living and the dead men two miles down Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft Listen for the drillin' of a rescue team Six hundred feet of coal and slag Hope imprisoned in a three-foot seam Hope imprisoned in a three-foot seam Eight days passed and some were rescued Leaving the dead to lie alone All their lives they dug their graves Two miles of earth for a markin' stone Two miles of earth for a markin' stone In the town of Spring Hill you don't sleep easy Often the Earth will tremble and groan When the Earth is restless, miners die Bone and blood is the price of coal Bone and blood is the price of coal -- Peggy Seeger

Yesterday's poem about a mining disaster made me think of Peggy Seeger's
"Ballad of Spring Hill."  Based on a real mining accident, where a number of
the trapped miners survived until rescued 8 days later, it has a haunting
melody and even more haunting lyrics.  I heard it as a child, listening to
Peter, Paul and Mary's recording.  I doubt I've heard or read it for 30 years,
but the line "all their lives they dug their graves" still gives me shivers.

Dale Rosenberg

Biography:
  [broken link] http://www.pegseeger.com/html/peggylongbio.html

[p.s. thanks to everyone who identified Stephen Mitchell as the translator of
the Rilke poem. - martin]