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,
Ina 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 the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?