THE APPARITION

by: Herman Melville (1819-1891)

ONVULSIONS came; and, where the field

Long slept in pastoral green,

A goblin-mountain was upheaved

(Sure the scared sense was all deceived),

Marl-glen and slag-ravine.

 

The unreserve of Ill was there,

The clinkers in her last retreat;

But, ere the eye could take it in,

Or mind could comprehension win,

It sunk!--and at our feet.

 

So, then, Solidity's a crust--

The core of fire below;

All may go well for many a year,

But who can think without a fear

Of horrors that happen so?

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