Episode 111 The Apparition - Herman Melville

Connor and Jack dive into the briny depths of one of Herman Melville's non-aquatic poetic works, "The Apparition." They talk about its contemporary applicability, their love of Brian Jacques' Redwall books, and share some thoughts on how many avenues there are into the poem. It's a spooky episode for the Halloween season!

The Apparition
(A Retrospect)
By: Herman Melville

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?