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

Is all that we see or seem 
but a dream within a dream?