The Hartley
men are noble, and Ye’ll hear a tale of woe I’ll tell the tale of the Hartley men The year of sixty-two Twas on a Thursday morning The first month of the year When there befell an event that well May rend your heart to hear. Before the day when most folk lay Still sleeping in their beds The Hartley men are up and off To earn their daily bread.
On they
toil, with heat they broil And streams of sweat still glue - The stour to their skins, till they Are black as the coal they hew. Now back and forth the putters go The wagons to and fro And clang on clang of wheel and hoof Ring in the mine below. The din and strife of human life Awake in board and wall When suddenly they feel a shock And terror grips them all.
Each bosom thuds
as each his duds
He snatches and away.
Towards the distant shaft he flees
With all the speed he may
They flee, they flee, by two and three
Towards the shaft, and seek
An answer in each other’s face
To what they dare not speak.
Are we entombed? They seem to ask
For the shaft is closed, and no -
Escape have they to God’s bright day
From out the night below.
| So stand in pain the Hartley men And swiftly o’er them comes Fond thoughts of friends and families And memories of their homes. Despair at length renews their strength For they the shaft must clear And soon the sound of mall and pick Drowns out the voice of fear. And hark to the blow of the mall below Do sounds above reply? Hurra, hurra, for the Hartley men For now their rescue’s nigh. But even as for their escape The men to hope did dare A second rumble shakes the mine And drives them to despair. Yet as they kneel, again they feel Their strength renewed, again The swing and ring of the mall attest The might of the Hartley men. And hark to the blow of the mall below Do sounds above reply? Hurra, hurra, for the Hartley men For now their rescue’s nigh.
| But the beam has collapsed and blocked the shaftThere’s nowhere left to crawlOne by one the lights go outAnd darkness covers allDear father, till the shaft is clearedClose beside me keepMy strength is gone, my eyes are tiredI know that I must sleepSleep, my son, close by I’ll stayAnd watch about thee keepTo stay awake the father strives But soon he too must sleep.Oh brother, till the shaft is closed Close beside me keepMy strength is gone, my eyes are tiredI know that I must sleepSleep, brother, sleep, close by I’ll stayAnd watch about thee keepTo stay awake the brother strives But soon he too must sleep.
So down
below the Hartley men Prepared to meet their fate
While up above by the black pit-heap
People could only wait.
And fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers
The lover and the new-made bride
A vigil kept for those who slept
From eve to morning tide.
But still they sleep in silence dread
Two hundred old and young
To awake when heaven and earth have sped
And the final trumpet rung. |