Traditional Children's Songs & Nursery Rhymes
My Grandfather's Clock

A Collection of lyrics for traditional nursery rhymes and songs for kids.

My Grandfather's Clock

by Henry Clay Work

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
Yet it weighed not a pennyweight more

It was bought on the morn on the day that he was born
It 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
But it stopped short,
Never to run again
When the old man died

In watching its pendulum swing to and fro
Many hours he had spent when a boy
And through childhood and manhood, the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy

For it struck 24 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

CHORUS:
My grandfather said that of those he could hire
Tick tock tick tock
Not a servant so faithful he'd found,
Tick tock tick tock
For it kept perfect time
And it had one desire
At the close of each day to be wound

At it kept to its place, not a frown upon its face
At its hands never hung by its 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 for flight
That his hour of departure had come

CHORUS:
Still the clock kept the time
Tick tock tick tock
With a soft and muffled chime
Tick tock tick tock
As we silently stood by his side
But it stopped, short, never to go again
When the old man died