Dream Within a Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now
You are not wrong, who deems
That our days are just 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?
It's just a dream
And I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore
I hold within my hand
Grains of golden sand -
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
It's just a dream
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
But a dream within a dream
All that we see that seems
Just a dream
Within a dream