Sonnet to a Bookmark

by

Frank X. Roberts and Lauren Roberts

“Patience, hard thing,” but you my trusty mate
Have learned the way. Even left in the rain,
Uncomplaining, you prove the poet’s refrain,
“They also serve who only stand and wait.”
Drowned in coffee stains and many a tear,
Soldier-like you faithfully stand on guard;
When weary heads begin to nod you’re there,
Between the pages keeping watch and ward.
There is a lesson in your loyal ways
That we who fret and fuss might try to learn:
To stop awhile, like you, and think and look;
To put some simple patience in our days;
To find at last the truth for which we yearn
Stands within, not on the pages of our book. 

Frank X. Roberts

Until about two years ago, bookmarks have been the Rodney Dangerfield (“no respect”) of ephemera, used and mostly forgotten. Whereas postcards, trade cards, postage stamps, maps, advertisements, posters, greeting cards, cigar box labels and bands and even bank checks have been the focus of ephemera collectors for a long time, bookmarks have only come into wide popularity within the last few years.

It’s a growing field of collecting interest. Now there are discussions, groups, blogs and web sites devoted to it. Plenty of bookmarks can be found on eBay, Etsy, and other auction sites ranging from inexpensively-produced new ones to antiquarian ones of high value.

What many of use most enjoy about collecting bookmarks is that they are more than what they are made of, more than what they say or where they came from, more than when and why they were made. Frank’s lovely paean tells not so much of the bookmark itself as what the bookmark’s purpose can teach us about our lives: faithfulness, patience, truth. It’s a view that is not often perceived, but it’s a fine one. For those of us who love bookmarks, it’s yet another dimension of their value.

Because of that, this week’s essay is visual rather than written. I have selected a number of bookmarks that I think illustrate the points made in the poem. They vary widely in theme, color and size, but all of them speak to me in the same way the poem does, by pointing out the values and virtues of self-observation, of patience and acceptance, of truth-searching, of learning, of the importance of appreciation. It may seem like a lot to expect of a little bookmark, but the truth is that it is not. Could it be we who expect too little of it?

Bookmark specifications: Hand-painted
Dimensions: 8 1/2" x 2"
Material: Silk
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Garden & Gate
Dimensions: 7" x 2 1/4"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Read
Dimensions: 7" x 2"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Artist-made
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Think!
Dimensions: 7 1/2" x 2 1/4"
Material: Laminated paper
Manufacturer: IBM
Date: 1960s?
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Oh! For a Book and a Shady Nook
Dimensions: 7" x 2"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Take Care of the Minutes
Dimensions: 7" x 1 3/4"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay

Bookmark specifications: Books Like Friends
Dimensions: 6" x 2 1/4"
Material: Paper
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Unknown
Acquired: eBay


Frank’s extensive career in teaching and librarianship began when he taught English in the U.S. From 1961 to 1963, as part of a Columbia University program called “Teachers for East Africa,” he taught English and American Literature in East Africa. There he met his wife, Dorothy. They returned to the U.S. where he simultaneously taught and finished two Masters’ degrees, in Education and in Librarianship. In 1968 they returned to England where Frank taught Library Studies, and adopted Hodge, a cat who later traveled around the world with them. In 1972, Frank was “seconded” for two years to teach at Makerere University in Uganda, East Africa, but left reluctantly after one year when the tyranny of Idi Amin became intolerable. From there it was back to England, then Australia and finally  to America in 1979, to Buffalo where Frank earned his doctorate. Later they moved to Colorado, where he was Professor of Library Studies at the University of Northern Colorado until retiring in 1997. Frank published James A. Michener: A Checklist of his Work with a Selected Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press) in 1995. He has written on bookmarks, specifically on medieval bookmarks, his special area of interest. A poet by avocation, he writes eclectically but traditionally.

Almost since her childhood days of Mother Goose, Lauren has been giving her opinion on books to anyone who will listen. That “talent” eventually took her out of magazine writing and into book reviewing in 2000 for an online review site where she cut her teeth (as well as a few authors). Stints as book editor for her local newspaper and contributing editor to Booklist and Bookmarks magazines has reinforced her belief that she has interesting things to say about books. Lauren shares her home with several significant others including three cats, 1,300 bookmarks and approximately 2,000 books that, whether previously read or not, constitute her to-be-read stack. She is a member of the National Books Critics Circle (NBCC) as well as a longtime book design judge for Publishers Marketing Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Contact Lauren.