The meaning of the lyrics of the song "Black Bart" by the artist "Volbeat"

The song Black Bart by Volbeat tells the story of the legendary stagecoach robber of the Wild West, Charles Earl Boles, better known as Black Bart the PO8 (Poet).

The lyrics vividly describe a typical Black Bart robbery: dressed in a long coat and a flour sack mask, armed with a double-barreled shotgun, he stops a Wells Fargo stagecoach. He is polite to the passengers, doesn't rob women, demanding only the strongbox. He emphasizes his audacity by leaving poems of his own composition at the crime scene, for which he received the nickname "Poet".

The lyrical hero of the song admires Black Bart, calling him "a highwayman poet" and "a ghost", the master of the road. He urges the spirit of Bart to return, "dust off [his] hat and your cleaver", for "boxes with [his] name and seal" are still waiting. The hero of the song yearns for the good old days of daring robberies and suggests "reliving old times", cracking open boxes of valuables and leaving behind daring poems.

The last verse of the song features a poem that Black Bart left at the scene of one of his robberies. In it, he explains his actions by saying that he "worked long and hard for a piece of bread", while the rich, "well-groomed sons of bitches", have been on his back for too long.