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      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      It rang and alarmed 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 for 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   His life seconds numbering   It stopped short, never to go again   When the old man died