Before you read our thoughts, check out this video below. It is our favourite performance of this song, or alternatively, click here to read the lyrics!
The Ploughman’s Poetry Discussion, The Boxer
There is a definite sadness to the way Paul Simon sings The Boxer. The gentle fingerpicking which accompanies the hushed recordings blend together, sounding like a whispered story, or a contemplative confession. There is nothing dramatic at all, it’s just a quiet telling of a man’s life and how hard it has been.
“I am just a poor boy though my story’s seldom told…”
We meet this boy, or man I suppose, and follow along with him as he is trying to find his way in life. And he seems to do everything right. He follows the rules, he looks for work and is kind and he keeps going. There is this youthful hope in him, a belief that if you do things properly and stay decent, life will reward you. You will find love, be paid and soon receive the prize that life promises – whatever that may be. It’s as if he has a rulebook entitled ‘life’ which believes he needs to follow, and so sticks with it.
“All lies and jest
Still, a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.”
And perhaps this is his fault, perhaps he is only hearing what he wants to hear and ignoring everything else, ignoring the worst possibilities in life and trying anyway. Nevertheless, he plays the game of life fairly, and loses.
We listen as he grows and changes yet keeps on trying and trying and in the end, he finds himself living a lonely life that he never wanted. The world continuously knocks him back, exhausting him and beating him down, and what’s more, his poem holds no rage, no anger at all. He has been disillusioned by hope his entire life, and now ties himself to this heavy, nostalgic sadness.
By the time the final verse comes, the man is older and has been given the role of a boxer – a role which demands not only defence and deflection, but also aggression. And this man, this once shy and tentative boy, isn’t that kind of person.
“In the clearing stands a boxer
And a fighter by his trade
And he carries the remainders
Of every glove that laid him down
And cut him till he cried out”
This stark image of a broken, tired boxer standing alone in the clearing is so deeply cemented within my mind. He stands there, and finally after a lifetime of work and struggle he says: “No. I am done. I have done what you have asked of me Life and you still beat me down. I have played your character and read aloud your script and yet you still hurt me. I have played your game fairly and now:
I am leaving,
I am leaving”
He doesn’t shout or scream or even blame anyone, he just stands in the light and tells the world that he is done.
And that is it.
We are left as he walks away. We want to chase after him and say “come back, we are sorry” but it is too late and he has been treated far too poorly for far too long and his statement was not a threat. And so, he walks away alone and in shame, to anywhere but here.
The Ploughman’s Community Comments
Yasmin, London: The lyrics to this song really remind me of Alan Ginsberg’s poem America. This great idea of the promised land, the concept of ‘America’ and its dream, and then you have all these poets and musicians seeing though the 2D lies. Just like Ginsberg, The Boxer has given his all and now is nothing.
Isaac, Canada: The whole repeated concept of him looking for work and then Simon describing his role as The Boxer as a trade, it’s like he had no choice in the matter. For life to give him such a violent job and then punish him when he isn’t good I find very powerful and saddening.
Ian, Andorra: The ending, repeated “Lie-la-lie” always stands out to me. It’s like as he resigns and walks away in shame he is recounting all of his past self’s thoughts and just discarding them all as lies which bounce off the tall, concrete jungle that is New York. He finally accepts and acknowledges his disillusionment with shame and that is deeply tragic.
Mark, London: It is a story that I recognise in my own. Whilst trying to walk the right path, I also declare I took some comfort in places that I had no business being in. And now facing rejection and defeat at the end of my work, I shall too shall just leave. But the fighter still remains.
Thanks for joing our discussion 🙂
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