The poet who voices a sense of unity in his use of universal concepts, and manages, by dint of his art, to concentrate in a phrase what the philosopher requires a book to say, wins the laurels of human greatness. Tennyson includes all the elements of such a verdict in half a dozen lines, generally accepted as worthy of such praise:—
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.
Students of Christian Science will perceive even greater depths in the consciousness of divine unity held by Tennyson than literary critics accord it, since in the last four words, he violates the rules of grammar to express it.
