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
Refrain
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?