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 seen
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 pitiless wave?
is all that we see or seem
bu a dream within a dream?