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.

All that we see or seem

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?