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!
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?