My Grandfather's Clock

My Grandfather's Clock


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 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.

My Grandfather said that of those he could hire,
Not a servant so faithful he found.
For It wasted no time and it had one desire,
At the end of the week to be wound.

And it kept in it's place, not a frown upon its face,
And it's hands never hung by it's side,
But it stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died.

It rang an alarm in the still of the night,
An alarm that for years had been dumb.
And we knew that his spirit was pluming in flight,
That his hour of departure had come.

Still the clock kept its 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,
His life seconds numbering,
It stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died.