My Grandfather's Clock

My mother used to sing this song to me. It would have been written shortly after her grandmother was born in 1872, and perhaps she sang it to her.

Her son, my own grandfather, died on his 96th birthday--after relinquishing the long-held claim that he would live to be 100.

If I live to my 90th birthday, I want this sung at my funeral dinner. I don't have as lofty a goal as my grandfather--I don't expect to live any past 90--but I don't want to die until my youngest grandchild is at least 5 years old (as his was).

There must be over a hundred slightly differing versions of this song online. Many leave out the third or fourth verse, and I found half a dozen different renditions just of the word after "pluming". Although several could, by intrinsic probability, offer themselves as the oldest and best version, this is the only one with "its" before childhood (clearly the more difficult reading), and furthermore is on the site of a biography of the author, Henry Clay Work. It is the best known of the dozens of songs he wrote. He gained fame during the Civil War for his wartime songs, so he was already quite famous when he wrote this one.
1
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 stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.
2
In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours had he spent while a boy;
And its 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 stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.
3
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 the hands never hung by its side.
But it stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.
4
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 for 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 stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
His life seconds numbering,
Tick, tock, tick, tock,
It stopp'd short-- never to go again--
When the old man died.

Note: Before this song became popular, the floor standing clocks were known merely as tall clocks, and became known as Grandfather Clocks as a result of the singing of this song, written by Henry Work. --Colophon from another website

One website offered this history for the lyrics: Music By: Henry Clay Work; it is reported that James P. Christian owned the old Grandfather's Clock which inspired C. Russel Christian to write the famous poem by that name.