Poems consisting of a tour through parts of North and South Wales, sonnets, odes, and an epistle to a friend on physiognomy. By W. Sotheby |
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| II. |
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| VI. | SONNET VI. ON DESCENDING INTO A MINE. |
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| XIV. |
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 | Poems |  |
50
SONNET VI. ON DESCENDING INTO A MINE.
Swart Demon of the mine! oft wont to rideUpon the wings of death, within the womb
Of earth invisible; or through the gloom
Of thy dank cell in fiery vapour glide;
Or, like the Fates, with restless labour guide
The venom'd thread of the destructive loom,
Weaving the web of destiny;—the doom
That now hangs o'er me tremulous, turn aside!
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The haunts, where brooding o'er thy mineral birth,
Thou gem'st the sparry vein with lucid ray:
Me nature leads beneath thy cavern's hoar
Not wond'rous more, on ocean, air, and earth,
Than in thy secret subterraneous way.
In the highest part of the roof of large drifts which branch out from the mine or main workings, something round is often seen hanging, about the bigness of a football, covered with a skin of the thickness and colour of a cobweb: this, if broken by any accident, immediately disperses itself, and suffocates the miners. Pryce's Mineralogia, p. 192.
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