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?