A Dream Within A Dream

Take this kiss upon the forehead!

And, in parting from you currently,

Thus a great deal let me avow--

You aren't wrong, who deem

That my days had been a dream;

Yet if desire has flown away

In a night time, or in an afternoon,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it consequently the less long past?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream inside a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I keep 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 now not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O, God! Can I no longer save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or appear

But a dream inside a dream?