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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


VISTAS OF LABOR: 2. THE MINER by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON

First Line: UP CREAKS THE CAR; HE LEAVES HIS GHASTLY DREAM
Last Line: AND ONCE AGAIN LIFE IS A NIGHTMARE DREAM.
Subject(s): DREAMS; FEAR; GOD; LIFE; LOVE; MINES & MINERS; NIGHTMARES;

UP creaks the car; he leaves his ghastly dream
Of flickering, strange lights and caverns gloomed,
Grim fears of death-damp and the rumblings deep
Of an inferno whence the damned come back
Daily to taste of Paradise, before
The Devil bids them down; up creaks the car
Disgorging men and mud indifferently.

How sweet the lingering sun, and yonder, look,
The cabin lights are beckoning fondly, where
Warm love awaits him; for a little space
He's no machine but human, and his God
Our God, -- no mid-earth Devil, but a power
Benign and near. . . .
But now the nether pit
Reclaims these children of a double world,
And once again Life is a nightmare dream.



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