Dream Within a Dream

* poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Is all that we see or seem
But 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;
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?