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 (a dream) [2x]
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,
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream (a dream) [2x]

O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave (wave... wave...)?

[violin solo]

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!
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?