1925


As If a Phantom Caress’d Me

Composed by Marc Blitzstein
Text by Walt Whitman

Whitman Songs Song Collection


"As If a Phantom Caress'd Me" is a song by Marc Blitzstein which sets the text of Walt Whitman from his final edition of Leaves of Grass (1891). "As If a Phantom Caress'd Me" is one of Blitzstein's many Whitman Songs.

Text

As if a phantom caress’d me
by 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.

Books

Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman

Sheet Music