Lyric discussion by Dropkick_Rover 

Cover art for The Burden lyrics by Dropkick Murphys

I figure this song is about some guy who got shit on for his whole life and took it all and never gave up despite all this. He was given the short end of the stick by all these smug assholes and he took it all because he knew he could outlast them and he would come out on top in the end. For some reason I get the idea that he was a musician of some kind because there is a lot of references to music in the song.