Simon And Bruce Woodley The Boxer Essay

The Boxer In 1968 Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley wrote “The Boxer”, a modern rock ballad. This narrative poetry tells the story of a young man struggling financially to make ends meet in a down economy. Like all narrative poetry, it tells a story of true life emotions that people can relate to. At the time, the economy in the United States of America was weak and thus many Americans were struggling financially. During this economic crisis, this ballad was popularized by the famous Simon and Garfunkel musical duo. While the rhythm of the poem is thought to be irregular and repetitive, the emotion it portrays is why it has become a classic ballad of its time. The persona of “The Boxer” is something that grabbed my attention from the beginning
I can clearly picture a young teenage boy, somewhere around eighteen years old stepping off the bus into the big lights of New York City. He is vulnerable and scared of his surroundings; not knowing what he should do. He has no home, nowhere to go but it determined to make this work. He walks down the crowded New York streets stumbling across whores on Seventh Avenue and homeless people for the first time. He has no idea where to go or what to do but he puts his chin up and carriers on in search of a job and a home. It is very hard for me to focus on and relate to most poetry, but this author did a great job of holding my attention and putting me in the scene with the
Most ballads are meant to be sung which means that there is some sort of refrain, or repeated theme throughout. While “The Boxer” is a sung ballad, there is no repetitive refrain. Instead the ballad goes on and on following the journey of the young man with not much rhythm. The stanzas are all different lengths and tones which make it difficult to follow at times. It must have been very difficult for Simon and Garfunkel to sing this ballad as it does not follow the same format as traditional songs and