"The Poet's Corner..."

"As If A Phantom Caress’d Me"

Walt Whitman

As if a phantom caress’d me,

I thought I was not alone, walking here by the shore;  

But the one I thought was with me, as now I walk by the shore—the one I loved, that caress’d me,  

As I lean and look through the glimmering light—that one has utterly disappear’d,  

And those appear that are hateful to me, and mock me.