Quotes / Birth-Death Juxtaposition

"Dignam carted off. Mina Purefoy swollen belly on a bed groaning to have a child tugged out of her. One born every second somewhere. Other dying every second. Since I fed the birds five minutes. Three hundred kicked the bucket. Other three hundred born, washing the blood off, all are washed in the blood of the lamb, bawling maaaaaa."

— James Joyce, Ulysses

They take the baby to the river,
Kyle William they call him.
They wash the baby in the water,
Take away little Kyle's sin.
In a whitewashed shotgun shack,
An old man passes away.
They take his body to the graveyard,
And over him they pray.

— Bruce Springsteen, "Reason to Believe"

Tom: You look tired.
Trixie: I've just delivered a baby.
Tom: And I'm off to sit with a dying man.
Trixie: That's life, really, isn't it?

— Call the Midwife

Lightning crashes a new mother cries
Her placenta falls to the floor
The angel opens her eyes
The confusion sets in
Before the doctor can even close the door

Lightning crashes an old mother dies
Her intentions fall to the floor
The angel closes her eyes
The confusion that was hers
Belongs now to the baby down the hall

— Live, "Lightning Crashes"

Somewhere the last of a species has died
Somewhere a child is born

— Johnny Clegg, "Tough Enough"

"Yet even as my father was taken by Anubis, a new life came forth. And as your grandfather was bound in fine linen, so were you wrapped in swaddling clothes, and a new day dawned for Egypt."

— Pharaoh opening narration

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