Grandfather's Clock

[David Casseres]

RUTHSINGS sez

>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 hold man himself
>Though it weighed not a penny weight more.
>
>It was bought on the morn
>Of the day that he was born
>And was always his treasure and pride.
>But the clock stopped never to go again when the old man died.
     [should be]
 But it stopped short, never [etc.]
>
>Ninety years without slumbering,
>Tick tock, tick tock
>It's life's seconds numbering,
     [should be]
 His life's seconds numbering [!]
>Tick tock, tick tock
>The clock stopped never to go again when the old man died.

There's more:

And in watching its pendulum swing to and fro
Many years had he spent as a boy.
Through childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.

And it struck twenty-four
When he entered through the door
With his blushing and beautiful bride
But it stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died.

Ninety years without slumbering [etc.]

     --Henry Clay Work



So the clock is not only anthropomorphic, it's the old man's 
doppelganger; the song picks up an old trope about a man's possessions 
breaking down when he dies and extends it to identify the clock and the 
man throughout their respective lives.  Like Work's other songs, this one 
is heavily sentimental but contains something original and striking.  The 
melody is also very artful, with dramatic caesuras after the words 
"stopped" and "short".


Cheers,
David