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? What is the rhyme scheme of Poe's poem? abba abba . . . aaa bb cc dd ee ff gg hhh ii jj kk aa bb cc . . . abab cdcd efef ghgh ijij kk