"A Dream Within a Dream", Edgar Allan Poe
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 ?