What are phantoms?

Famous quotes containing the word phantoms:

“Feign then what’s by a decent tact believed
And act that state is only so conceived,
And build an edifice of form
For house where phantoms may keep warm.”
—William Empson (1906–1984)

“In the towns I am tracked by phantoms having weird detective ways—”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

“How cold the vacancy
When the phantoms are gone and the shaken realist
First sees reality. The mortal no
Has its emptiness and tragic expirations.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)