My Grandfather's Clock

My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf

So it stood ninety years on the floor

It was taller by half than the old man himself

Though it weighed not a pennyweight more

It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born

And was always his treasure and pride

But it stopped short, never to go again

When the old man died...

In watching its pendulum swing to and fro

Many hours had he spent while a boy

And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know

And to share both his grief and his joy

For it struck twenty-four when he entered the door

With a blooming and beautiful bride

But it stopped short, never to go again

When the old man died...

Ninety years without slumbering

Tick, tock, tick, tock

His life seconds numbering

Tick, tock, tick, tock

It stopped short, never to go again

When the old man died

And it kept in its place, not a frown upon its face

And its hands never hung by its side

But it stopped short, never to go again

When the old man died..

It rang an alarm in the dead of the night

An alarm that for years had been dumb

And we knew that his spirit was pluming for flight

That his hour of departure had come

Still the clock kept the time, with a soft and muffled chime

As we silently stood by his side

But it stopped short, never to go again

When the old man died...