The fall semester is upon us and I thought it might be time for a
    singalong.
 
    "The Stacks of the Library," by  Lydia Fish (culled from SING OUT!)
 
    Tune:  "Streets of Laredo"
 
    As I walked down to the stacks of the library
    As I walked through the dark stacks one day,
    I spied a young grad student wrapped in white paper,
    All wrapped in white paper and cold as the clay.
 
    I knelt down beside him and offered to lend him
    My xerox account card, but he turned it away.
    "Oh, come and lean o'er me and hear my sad story,
    I'm a poor young grad student, heading death's way."
 
    "Twas once I strolled proudly across the broad campus,
    In my letterman's sweater, my gal at my side.
    But you see by my stubble that now I'm a grad student,
    A poor would-be scholar who's ready to die."
 
    "Let old Stunk and White come carry my coffin,
    And for my sad mourners, the whole MLA.
    Oh sprinkle my casket with in-text citations.
    I used to use footnotes, but now they're passe."
 
    "Oh beat the tomes slowly and play the fife lowly.
    Sound the death march as they carry me along.
    The bores and prima-donna who sat on my committee
    Have left nothing of me but this sad, sad song.
 
    As I walked out of the stacks of the library,
    As I walked out of the dark stacks that day,
    The last words he'd spoken, they'll always stay with me,
    "Stop what you're doing, go get a job with good pay."
 
 
    Transcribed by [log in to unmask]