Flower in the Crannied Wall

Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, Little flower—but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is. == Structure ==

In terms of stresses, the poem follows an accentual meter where the organization of the poem relied on the "count of stresses, not by count of syllables". The pattern for the number of stresses in this poem is 3-3-4-4-4-3. Flow-er in the cran-nied wall, I pluck you out of the cran-nies, I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, Little flow-er—but if I could un-der-stand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is.The poem also follows an ABCCAB rhyme scheme. There are also 2 instances of a feminine ending found in the second and last line. ==Parallel in an earlier work by William Blake==

A previous exploration of the theme of a mystical epiphany of the divine macrocosm apprehended through the microcosm may be found in the oft-quoted first four lines of the poem "Auguries of Innocence", composed by William Blake (1757 –1827) in the year 1803, but remaining unpublished until 1863 - the very year of Tennyson’s composition of "Flower in the Crannied Wall". To see the world in a grain of sand And heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour. ==Reception==

In literature The phrase flower in the crannied wall is sometimes used in a metaphorical sense for the idea of seeking holistic and grander principles from constituent parts and their connections. The poem can be interpreted as Tennyson’s perspective on the connection between God and Nature. English critic Theodore Watts characterized Tennyson as a "nature poet." Fredric Myers described Tennyson as incorporating the “interpenetration of the spiritual and material worlds" into his literary works. In science , Albert Blakeslee and Sophia Satina. Satina used Flower in the Crannied Wall'' as the epigraph of her botanical work (written jointly with Amos Avery and Jacob Rietsema) named in honour of her late friend and mentor, Blakeslee Scientists have also mentioned and drawn their own interpretations of the poem. In his book Through Nature to God, evolutionist John Fiske describes the flower as an “elementary principle” that is both “simple and broad.” According to Fiske, all living things "represents the continuous adjustment of inner to outer relations". The flower mentioned by Tennyson is a plant consisting of complex systems that regulates its "relations within" itself and its "relations existing outside" itself. Further understanding these complex systems scientifically can reveal the "mysteries of Nature." Others including Theodore Soares, the then department head from the University of Chicago, also viewed Tennyson as "one of the earliest of the spiritual interpreters of life" who saw the impacts of science with macroscopic lenses. Amos Avery, Sophia Satina and Jacob Rietsema use the poem as the epigraph of Blakeslee: the genus Datura, their work of botany and plant genetics devoted to the poisonous and entheogenic jimsonweed genus of the plant family Solanaceae, so named in honour of pioneering plant geneticist Albert Francis Blakeslee. == References ==