It was not until some time after 1876 when wrote “My Grandfather’s Clock” - and known by many as The Grandfather Clocks Song - which became extremely popular especially in the USA, and gradually replaced the names of longcase and tallcase clocks to grandfather to most people. The Chorus of the Grandfather Clock Song is perhaps the part that will look and sound most familiar to people.
The Chorus is:
Ninety years without slumbering,
His life’s seconds numbering,
It stopped, short, never to go again, when the old man died.
First Verse:
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.
Second Verse:
In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
many hours had he spent while a boy.
And in 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 stopped, short, never to go again, when the old man died.
Third Verse:
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.
Fourth and Last Verse:
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 muffled chime,
as we silently stood by his side.
But it stopped, short, never to go again, when the old man died.