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,
Tho' it weighed not a pen-ny weight more.
It was bought of 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.

(Chorus)
Ninety years without slumbering: Tick, tock, tick tock,
His life's seconds numbering: Tick, tock, tick, tock,
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 as 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.

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.

abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Singing Together, Spring 1985, BBC Publications

Notes:
The booklet merely says 'America'.

It was written by Henry Clay Work in 1876 and many dictionaries agree that Work's song is the source for the name "grandfather clock".


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