As If a Phantom Caress’d Me
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, theone I loved that caress’d me,As I lean and look through the glimmering light, that one hasutterly disappear’d.And those appear that are hateful to me and mock me.
Words in this poem
- hateful a.
- Manifesting hate or hatred; malignant; malevolent.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
As If a Phantom Caress’d Me is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, As If a Phantom Caress’d Me, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/as-if-a-phantom-caress-d-me.html, id L04026.
Form and metre
As If a Phantom Caress’d Me is 7 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 11.0 syllables.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 A-AA--A meA · shore · theA · meA · has · disappear'd · meA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| As if a phantom caress’d me, | 8 | ···/˘˘/· |
| I thought I was not alone walking here by the shore; | 13 | ·····˘//˘···· |
| But the one I thought was with me as now I walk by the shore, the | 16 | ················ |
| one I loved that caress’d me, | 7 | ····˘/· |
| As I lean and look through the glimmering light, that one has | 14 | ·······/˘˘···· |
| utterly disappear’d. | 6 | /˘˘·˘/ |
| And those appear that are hateful to me and mock me. | 13 | ··˘/··/˘····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.