Spermatozoa

This cant be said to be a really good poem, but it sticks in the mind. And the more you think about it, the more it says about this lottery we call life, especially in these DNA obsessed days

A million million spermatozoa

All of them alive;

Out of their cataclysm but one poor Noah

Dare hope to survive.

And among that billion minus one

Might have chanced to be

Shakespeare, another Newton, a new Donne

But the One was Me.

Shame to have ousted your betters thus,

Taking ark while the others remained outside!

Better for all of us, forward Homunculus,

If you'd quietly died!

Aldous Huxley: Fifth Philosophers Song

.

One of the things that intrigues me is the different ways 'forward Homonculus' can be stressed. As a battle cry, or as an admonition about your presumption