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
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
But a dream within a dream