Listen to this when
The Boxer
Still standing in the ring 🥊
Who it's for
Paul Simon's largely autobiographical song touches on poverty, loneliness and feeling unfairly judged, through the image of a fighter who keeps going.
Battered and lonely→Resilient
Feelings it meets
What it is
"The Boxer" is a folk rock ballad by Simon & Garfunkel, released as a single on March 21, 1969, and later included on Bridge over Troubled Water (1970). It is a first-person lament about loneliness and poverty while struggling in New York City, and the final verse shifts to a third-person portrait of a boxer.
Where to find it
All major streaming services.
Before you start
Heads up: Brief reference to sex work.
Age: All ages
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state,William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29
