Dream Within a Dream

All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream

Take this kiss upon the brow
And in parting from you now
This much let me avow
You are not wrong, who deemed
That my days have been a dream

Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, in a day, in a vision, or a memory
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 hands
Grains of 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?