a letter in the Journal

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A fountain pen-inked letter, in neat and old fashioned script, on vellum. It was folded in half and has been folded again to carefully fit in the journal. On the opposite page is taped a matching envelope simply labelled “Grr” in the same hand.
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Brother,
Perhaps this will speak to your spirit.

"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?"

-Joah