1. 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?