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.

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 stopped short ? never to go again ?
When the old man died.
CHORUS

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


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