Dream in a Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!
Thus much let me avow—
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;

Oh, led astray—
Yet if hope has flown away
Oh, led astray—
In a night or in a day

In a vision, or in none
Is it therefore the less gone?
And I hold within my hand
The grains of the golden sand—

Oh, while I weep—
How few! yet how, yet how they creep
Oh, while I weep—
Through my fingers to the deep

And is all that we seem
Just an endless, pitiless dream?
Are we swept away by a stream?
Is it all just a dream in a dream?
Oh please, let me awake
Hear my plea; for God′s sake!
Let me find the way out of the darkest night!

O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the cheerless wave?

And is all that we seem
Just an endless, pitiless dream?
Are we swept away by a stream?
Is it all just a dream in a dream?
Oh please, let me awake
Hear my plea; for God's sake!
Let me find the way out of the darkest night!

And is all that we seem
Just an endless, pitiless dream?
Are we swept away by a stream?
Is it all just a dream in a dream?
Oh please, let me awake
Hear my plea; for God's sake!
Let me follow the way in the saving light!