"Big Rock Candy Mountain" is a song about a hobo's idea of paradise - a modern version of the medieval concept of Cockaigne, and similar to the cavalryman's concept of Fiddler's Green. The song describes a hobo's vision of utopia, a place where the "hens lay soft boiled eggs" and there are "cigarette trees". The song is also rather ironic and satirical in that it additionally describes modified versions of things that one wouldn't think should exist in paradise at all, such as police (with wooden legs) and jail bars (made of tin), but sound appealing to someone whose lifestyle runs afoul of the law.