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The Apparition
By Herman Melville

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	(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?


 
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