Lord Alfred Tennyson - Flower in the crannied wall

This poem is written about a flower which the poet has plucked from an old wall and examined. He writes:

"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."

Though he has the flower materially in hand, he implies that the flower has a being and depth of meaning which is beyond the full grasp of his understanding. This shows the Victorian poets idea of the transcendent aspect of reality, beyond the material.