Take this kiss upon the brow! <br /> And, in parting from you now, <br /> Thus much let me avow- <br /> You are not wrong, who deem <br /> That my days have been a dream; <br /> Yet if hope has flown away <br /> In a night, or in a day, <br /> In a vision, or in none, <br /> Is it therefore the less gone? <br /> All that we see or seem <br /> Is but a dream within a dream. <br /> <br /> I stand amid the roar <br /> Of a surf-tormented shore, <br /> And I hold within my hand <br /> Grains of the golden sand- <br /> How few! yet how they creep <br /> Through my fingers to the deep, <br /> While I weep- while I weep! <br /> O God! can I not grasp <br /> Them with a tighter clasp? <br /> O God! can I not save <br /> One from the pitiless wave? <br /> Is all that we see or seem <br /> But a dream within a dream?<br /><br />Edgar Allan Poe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-dream-within-a-dream/
