Grandpa’s Clock
Tick, tock! Tick, tock!
Forty ’leven by the clock.
Tick, tock! Tick, tock!
Put your ear to Grandpa’s ticker,
Like a pancake, only thicker.
Tick, tock! Tick, tock!
Catch a squirrel in half a minute,
Grab a sack and stick him in it.
Tick, tock! Tick, tock!
Mister Bunny feeds on honey,
Tea, and taters—ain’t it funny?
Tick, tock! Tick, tock!
When he goes to bed at night,
Shoves his slippers out of sight;
That is why Old Fox, the sinner,
Had to go without his dinner.
Tick, tock! Tick, tock!
So says Grandpa’s clock.
First published in The Peter Patter Book of Nursery Rhymes (1918).
This rhyme is pure motion — all rhythm, repetition, and comic energy. Jackson turns the tick of a clock into a steady beat that carries one bit of nonsense after another: a squirrel hunt, a tea-drinking rabbit, a fox left hungry. Each little image flashes by like a second-hand sweep.
It’s a poem about time that forgets all about keeping it. The phrase “Forty ’leven by the clock” sets the mood immediately — part exaggeration, part child logic. Wright’s illustration likely showed a jumble of animals circling the clock, giving it a sense of life and mischief.
What makes Grandpa’s Clock timeless is that steady pulse: tick, tock, tick, tock. It’s hypnotic, funny, and musical — exactly what children’s verse should be.
