Robert Hunter

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the division of contemporary/traditional and form their own categories.
One of the main traditional themes that Hunter uses is the gambling theme. The poems "Candyman" and "Loser" exemplify this motif the best:
Come on boys and gamble

Roll those laughing bones.

Seven come eleven, boys

I'll take your money home.

--"Candyman"

Last fair deal in the country, sweet Suzy

Last fair deal in the town.

Put your gold money where your love is, baby,

Before you let my deal go down.

--"Loser"

Both are about professional gamblers, and both (especially "Loser") carry overtones of trouble and treachery. The following lines illustrate one such instance in "Candyman":

I come in from Memphis

where I learned to talk the jive

When I get back to Memphis

Be one man less alive

The Candyman obviously has a score to settle with someone in Memphis. The "trouble" notion is both more and less apparent in "Loser":

Don't you push me baby

because I'm moaning low.

I know a little ...

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example of Hunter's labor theme. A story of a coal miner in the Cumberland mines, this poem carries strong parallels to the "conventional wisdom" theme.

I gotta get down

I gotta get down

Or I can't work there no more.


Lotta poor man make a five-dollar bill/Keep him happy all the time

Some other fellow making nothing at all

And you can hear him crying


'Can I go buddy

Can I go down

Take your shift at the mine?'

Conventional wisdom is a motif that Hunter uses in several of his traditional poems, namely "Greatest Story Ever Told", and "Uncle John's Band". These deal with aspects of day-to-day country living and the common-sense wisdom found in many classic folk tales. ...

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