The Boxer -- Simon & Garfunkel

I am just a poor boy though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises. All lies and jest, still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest, hmmmm

When I left my home and my family, I's no more than a boy
In the company of strangers In the quiet of the railway station, runnin' scared, laying low,  Seeking out the poorer quarters, where the ragged people go, Looking for the places only they would know.

Asking only workman's wages, I come lookin' for a job, 
But I get no offers, Just a come-on from the whores on 7th Avenue.
I do declare, there were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there.

i am older than i once was  and younger than i'll be that's not unusual.
no it isnt strange after changes upon changes we are more or less the same after changes we are more or less the same 

And I'm laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone, 
goin' home Where the New York City winters aren't bleedin' me, leadin' me, goin' home.

In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade
And he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him 'Til he cried out in his anger and his shame
I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains.


The song's lyrics take the form of a first-person lament, as the singer describes his struggles to overcome loneliness and poverty in New York City. The final verse switches to a third-person sketch of a boxer, who, despite the effects of "every glove that laid him down or cut him till he cried out", perseveres. At the last we are told the boxer cries out, "I am leaving, I am leaving" — "but", the lyrics continue, "the fighter still remains.   (wikipedia)