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.

Ninety years, without slumbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)

His life seconds numbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)

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 at 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, tick, tick, tick)

His life seconds numbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)

It stopped - short - never to go again

When the old man died.

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 stopped - short - never to go again

When the old man died.

Ninety years, without slumbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)

His life seconds numbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)

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.

Ninety years, without slumbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)

His life seconds numbering (tick, tick, tick, tick)

It stopped - short - never to go again

When the old man died.