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?