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 had 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 shor, And I hold whithin my hand Grains of 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? i