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 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?

Source: American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (The Library of America, 1993)