"The pump don't work 'Cause the vandals took the handle."
-- Bob Dylan
I came across this sentence in a book. It looks like the author quoted that sentence written by Bob Dylan -- who might be a famous person I guess.
I feel "The pump don't work" doesn't look right because pump is a countable noun and it should take a single verb form, doesn't.
On the other hand, the sentence seems pretty straight forward and I don't understand why it's so famous that deserves to be quoted by the author. Maybe, there is a underlying meaning, which I haven't gotten yet?
P.S. The book's name is The Long Walk, by Stephen King.
Answer
"Don’t" used in the third person singular by Bob Dylan is what we would call a “poetic licence” probably meant to have the desired (linguistic/dramatic) effect in the song lyrics:
Anyway:
Don't is occasionally used in American English speech and in historical writing as a contraction of does not (as in, "He don't know where he is going."), but this use is now considered improper and should be avoided. Remember that in modern speech and writing, don't cannot be used in the third person singular.
(M-W)
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