Heaven in a flower

The first stanza of the poem "Auguries of Innocence" by the mystical poet William Blake (1757 - 1827):

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

Dad wrote this on a birthday card for me in 2011.

I took it to mean that I should enjoy the small things in life, and this has stuck with me during the two years since. I scoured the house tonight to find this card only to find a poem and not the words I thought Dad had written at all. Reading the explanation below I see it fits exactly with my love of macro photography. So .... It has taken me two years Dad, but I can finally see heaven in a flower.


Blake is expressing a mystical belief that the microcosm (the small scale) symbolizes the macrocosm (the large scale) and that it's possible to experience the macrocosm by contemplation of the microcosm.
In other words, when you view a grain of sand correctly, you really see the whole world in a kind of mystical vision. When you view a wild flower with your whole being, with all your senses, you really do see heaven.
From this perspective, the palm of your hand is as large as infinity and an hour is as long as eternity.
From :http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070704072423AAnkUsV