Germs

A poem by Walt Whitman

Forms, qualities, lives, humanity, language, thoughts,
The ones known, and the ones unknown - the ones on the stars,
The stars themselves, some shaped, others unshaped,
Wonders as of those countries - the soil, trees, cities, inhabitants, whatever they may be,
Splendid suns, the moons and rings, the countless combinations and effects;
Such-like, and as good as such-like, visible here or anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my arm and half enclose with my hand;
That contains the start of each and all - the virtue, the germs of all.