Caliban in the Coal Mines was written by the American poet Louis Untermeyer (1885–1977) and published in his 1914 collection Challenge. Caliban, a leading character in Shakespeare's play The Tempest, is said to be based in the poem on real-life coal miner Few Clothes Johnson, who was portrayed in the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan by actor James Earl Jones. Caliban in the Coal Mines GOD, we don't like to complain;We know that the mine is no lark.But — there's the pools from the rain;But — there's the cold and the dark.