A Dream within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow! 

And, in parting from you now, 

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream; 

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day, 

In a vision, or in none, 

Is it therefore the less gone? 

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream. 

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore, 

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand-

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep, 

While I weep- while I weep! 

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp? 

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave? 

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?