Book Review
Rhymes of the Mines / Life in the Underground Compiled by Mason and
Janice Coggin, 141 pp, 22 illus. Published by Cowboy Miner Productions,
P O Box 9674, Phoenix, AZ 85068, USA @ $14.95 + $3 post. [Readers in
the rest of the Colonies can obtain it for £12 post free from Tony
Oldham].
Books of mining poetry used to be like hen’s teeth, but like buses when
they do come they seem to come in three’s as this is the third such
volume to be received in as many weeks. Mason and Janice compiled this
volume for the first Gathering of Mining Poets at the Western Folklife
Center in Elko, Nevada, November 12, 1999 to preserve this art form in
what is now a rapidly changing industry. These poems reflect the
traditions of the underground miners from the hanging wall of Butte to
the footwall of Cananea, from Alaska to Patagonia, from Australia to
South Africa and even the British Isles. Mason and Janice looked for
poetry with a rhyme and a meter that lend themselves to both listening
or setting to music for singing. The poems were gathered from books,
oral tradition and the backs of business cards, advertisements, bar
napkins and single sheets of well faded notebook paper. They were
contributed by friends, found in old collections, were donated by
historical societies and discovered in old mining books. This is an
open collection and it is intended that poems, songs and short stories
will be added as they are re-discovered.
Mining is possibly the most dangerous occupation in the world and these
poems recall the accidents, the tragic circumstances of the relatives
left behind and the hardship endured by the miners who survived.
On a lighter note, it appears that mules are reputed to be to miners
like sheep are to Welsh farmers, as some poems describe kissing a mule
or “My sweetheart is a mule in the mine”.
It is pleasing to note that there are numerous contributions by
Newsgroup member Tony Brewis one of which follows:
“O harken to the music there”
“Music? Music? Music where?”
“Hark to the sound that stirs and thrills-
The music of pneumatic drills!”
from:
Tony Oldham, Specialist Mine and Cave Bookseller,
Duncavin, Rest Home for Retired Cavers, Riverside Mews, Cardigan, SA43
1DH, UK
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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