But some—ye have forgot—are down!"

 "Who is forgot?"  We stared from face to face; But answering through the dark, she said (It was a woman): "Eh, ye need not fret; None is forgot except the dead. 

But answering through the dark, she said

None is forgot except the dead.

 "The buried dead asleep there in the works— Eh, Lord! It must be hot below! Ye 'll keep 'em waking all the livelong night, To set the mine a-burning so!" 

Eh, Lord! It must be hot below!

To set the mine a-burning so!"

 And all the night the mine did burn and burst, As if the earth were but a shell Through which a child had thrust a finger-touch, And, peal on dreadful peal, the bell, 

As if the earth were but a shell

And, peal on dreadful peal, the bell,

 The miner's 'larum, wrenched the quaking air; And through the flaring light we saw The solid forehead of the eternal hill Take on a human look of awe; 

And through the flaring light we saw

Take on a human look of awe;

 As if it were a living thing, that spoke And flung some protest to the sky, As if it were a dying thing that saw, But could not tell, a mystery. 

And flung some protest to the sky,

But could not tell, a mystery.

 The bells ran ringing by us all that night. The bells ceased jangling with the morn. About the blackened works,—sunk, tossed, and rent,— We gathered in the foreign dawn; 

The bells ceased jangling with the morn.

We gathered in the foreign dawn;

 Women and men, with eyes askance and strange, Fearing, we knew not what, to see. Against the hollowed jaws of the torn hill, Why creep the miners silently? 

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