A dream within a dream

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 (a dream) (x2)
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,
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream (a dream) (x2)

Oh, God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
Oh, God! Can I not save
One from the pitiless wave (wave... wave...)?

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!
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?