Illinois Verse/The Old Library

by Anna Shattuck Palmer

The Old Library

Treasure house where hoarded wisdom is stored
 All sorted and labeled on shelves, row on row;
And students who're eager for knowledge and some who're bored
 Hasten quickly to partake or with motions slow
Just glance at the books assigned,—all sitting around
The tables with which the reading rooms abound.

Behind the loan desk's curved, confining length,
 Where busy librarians according to rule
Deal out from the stacks, a tablet of great strength
 Is seen to the founder of the Library School
Katharine Sharp, and President James' fine face
In profile, high above the central space.

The mural decorations still bright today
 Are scenes from college life by Newton Wells
Whose dust lies now in Egypt far away.
 Overhead we hear the chimes' deep bells,
And see beyond the drawers of reference cards
The Lincoln yolk, a framed glass case safe-guards.

A pleasant place for students to gather and read
 In scholastic atmosphere forever serene,
Tho many a whispered date is made, indeed,
 Behind the cover of book or magazine.
To the great new library soon we shall depart
But memories of the old dwell in many a heart.