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, 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! I can not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! I can not save
One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,