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

His life seconds numbering

It stopped short never to go again

When the old man died

In watching its pendulum

Swing to and fro

Many hours he had spent while a boy

In childhood and manhood

The clock seemed to know

And share both his grief and his joy

For it's 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

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 his 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