I Thought I Was Not Alone

I Thought I Was Not Alone - meaning Summary

Perceived Companionship Lost

Whitman presents a brief moment of altered perception on a shoreline. A companion the speaker believed present disappears, and other ambiguous figures or impressions replace them, provoking bewilderment. The poem frames solitude and the instability of perception: what felt shared becomes singular, and the environment supplies unfamiliar presences that unsettle the speaker. It suggests how consciousness or grief can reshape company and transform a familiar scene into something perplexing.