THE APPARITION (A Retrospect)

Convulsions 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 feed.
  
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?



Herman Melville
1865