Don McLean - The Grave lyrics

The grave that they dug him had flowers
Gathered from the hillsides in
Bright summer colours
And the brown earth bleached white at
The edge of his gravestone he's gone

When the wars of our nation did beckon
A man barely twenty did answer the calling
Proud of the trust that he
Placed in our nation he's gone
But Eternity knows him
And it knows what we've done

And the rain fell like pearls on
The leaves of the flowers leaving brown
Muddy clay where the earth had been dry
And deep in the trench he waited for hours
As he held to his rifle and prayed not to die

But the silence of night
Was shattered by fire


As guns and grenades blasted
Sharp through the air
And one after another his
Comrades were slaughtered
In a morgue of Marines, alone standing there

He crouched ever lower, ever lower with fear
"They can't let me die! They
Can't let me die here!
I'll cover myself with the mud and the earth
I'll cover myself! I know I'm not brave!
The earth! the earth! the earth is my grave"

The grave that they dug him had flowers
Gathered from the hillsides in
Bright summer colours
And the brown earth bleached white at
The edge of his gravestone he's gone