Poetry Archives

Kind friend, you do not know how much
  I prize this time-ly treasure,
So dainty, diligent, and such
  A constant source of pleasure.

The man of brains who could invent
  So true a chrono-meter
Has set a charming precedent,
  And made a good repeater.

It speaks with clear, commanding clicks,
  Suggestive of the donor;
And ‘tends to business—never sick
  A bit more than the owner.

It goes when I do; when I stop
  (As by the dial showing)
It never lets a second drop,
  But simply keeps on going.

It tells me when I am to eat,
  Which isn’t necessary;
When food with me is obsolete,
  I’ll be a reliquary.

It tells me early when to rise,
  And bother with dejeuner;
To sally forth and exercise,
  And fill up my porte-monnaie.

I hear it talking in the night,
  As if it were in clover:
You’ve never lost your appetite,
  You’ve never been run over.

It makes me wish that I might live
  More faithful unto duty,
And unto others something give
  Like this bijou of beauty.

It holds its hands before its face,
  So very modest is it;
So like the people in the place
  Where I delight to visit.

Sometimes I wonder if it cries
  The course I am pursuing;
Because it has so many I-s
  And must know what I’m doing.

Sometimes I fear it makes me cry—
  No matter, and no pity—
Afraid at last I’ll have to die
  In some far, foreign city.

It travels with me everywhere
  And chirrups like a cricket;
As if it said with anxious air,
  “Don’t lose your tick-tick-ticket!”

Companion of my loneliness
  Along my journey westward,
It never leaves me comfortless,
  But has the last and best word.

I would not spoil its lovely face,
  And so I go behind it,
And hold it like a china vase,
  So careful when I wind it.

A clock is always excellent
  That has its label on,
And proves a fine advertisement
  For Waterbury, Conn.

Those Yankees—ah! they never shun
  A chance to make a dime,
And counterfeit the very sun
  In keeping “Standard Time.”

Ah, well! the little clock has proved
  The best of all bonanzas;
And thus my happy heart is moved
  To these effusive stanzas.