The above quote is from Ryan Barton (Class of 1999). Read the full memory below:

“I
oh! you rock. are you library or prison?
by your architecture we cannot know.
I found myself inside you, at the lowest possible
level, where silence reigned thick as a monk`s
cubicle, a post-platonic cave, a bachelor king
in guarded concrete buried with all the mortal
treasures of the semiotic universe. you were
no alexandria, rock. but you were my only home.

II
oh you humble rock.
you rockefeller.
next to the stately john carter brown,
you are junior`s homely thing
and wholly without science.

yet this is why we remember
you. you, refuge of humanity.
the ratty of libraries. after
you enter you can only go down.

here anything was possible.
and like many, i too got lost
in lust inside. sometimes cramming.
always wandering without a concentration.

down, down, down….
into the basement`s basement`s basement,
i have known myself to fantasize.
and never write things down.

III
There were rumors of being locked in you.
I was lost in your hollowed walls
for ten long years myself.
A life sentence, it seemed,
would I ever leave matriculated?
With Josiah as my witness,
you are MY Rock
and I am Always Yours.

IV
Rock. Philosopher`s Stone.
My Post-Structural Mecca.
I met you in the days of floppy
disks and microfiche.
Your stacks, your reserves.
You gave me my references.
Not even Orwig entertained
me as much as you.
Even when I could not meet
my fines, I found a deeper
circulation. If I could write
in blood, I would:
My thanks are long past overdue. “