Sub Rosa

Cornwall was a huge mining force during the Industrial Revolution. Many historical features on the net. Also look up the names Humphrey Davy, Richard Trevithick etc - they were the inventive movers and shakers and both Cornish lads.

Below is a poem that I studied during my degree by Cornish Poet John Harris

In Dolcoath Mine

The heat, the cold, the sulphur and the slime,
The grinding masses of loosened rock,
The scaling ladders, the incessant grime
From the dark timbers and the dripping block,
The lassitude, the mallet's frequent knock,
The pain of thirst when water was so near,
The aching joints, the blasted hole's rude shock,
Could not dash out the music from his ear,
Or stay the sound of song which ever murmured clear.

The cavern's sides, the vagues of shining spar,
The roof of rock where scarce the candle gleams,
The hollow levels strangely stretching far
Beneath the mountains, full of mineral seams,
Where evermore to him befitting themes,
For his meditations and his rustic lay;
While in the darkness his pale visage gleams,
To read rich sonnets on the furrowed clay,
And craggy slabs that jut the ladder's lonely way.