GRANDFATHER'S CLOCK
Henry Clay Work
1.
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 stopp'd short never
to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS:
Ninety years, without slumbering
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
His life seconds numbering
(tick, tick, tick, tick),
It stopp'd short never to go again,
When the old man died.
2.
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 at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopp'd short never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS
3.
My grandfather said that of those
he could hire.
Not a servant so faithful he found;
For it wasted no time,
and had but one desire,
At the close of each week to be wound.
And it kept in its place,
Not a frown upon its face,
And its hands never hung by its side;
But it stopp'd short never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS
4.
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 stopp'd short never to go again,
When the old man died.
CHORUS
