Twenty one guns fired over the sea.

A sea of black suits and tear stained cheeks.

The dark ship of sorrows floats unmoving

Amidst the waves of sobbing oratory.

And there just like the great ships sail

The stars and stripes burns as a beacon

To light a million dead men’s way

Out of the battle to unending grace

Clutching to that brilliant banner

The only token of a dead boy’s valor

Mother’s weep for children long since gone

And twenty one guns fire over the sea.

Alas that bleak ship does not harbor long,

For the war never ends beneath that flag

Across the land it sails on waves of death

To behold the fate of America’s children

And still we sing in reverent voice

Oh my country ’tis of thee,

Oh sweet land of liberty

As twenty one guns fire over the sea.