Is it mere coincidence that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Poet of the Heart, " as he was called by his readers, was born in the month of love? Dare we imagine that Cupid arched his bow and aimed his arrow at Longfellow on February 27, 1807, the date of his birth in Portland, Maine?

Now center-stage in Maine, the most popular poet of the 19th-century lives on, two hundred years after his birth, in celebrations that honor his legacy, a legacy that embraces poetry for everyone of all ages or education.

In keeping with this legacy, Brunswick feets him with festivities ranging from horse-drawn wagon rides and poetry readings to music, art, stage, and dance performances

Longfellow Days, the Brunswick Legacy Celebration, begins the first week in February and culminates on the beloved poet's birthday, February 27.

Longfellow would be humbled. According to Christoph Irmscher, author of Longfellow Redux, the poet was anything but arrogant. He courted and respected his readers as ardently as he wooded any lady.

But the lady he first wooed and wed was Mary Potter of Portland. Unfortunately, their four-year marriage ended with her death following a miscarriage on a trip abroad together. In a later letter to Mary's sister, Longfellow wrote, "I was so happy with my dear Mary, that it is very hard to be alone . . . Hardly a day passes, that some face . . . or some passage in the book I am reading does not call up the image of my beloved wife. . ." (The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, edited by Andrew Hilen.)

Already a sensitive man, Longfellow's grief only deepened his kindness. Upon his engagement to Fanny Appleton-according to Anita Isreal, Archives Specialist, Longfellow National Historic Site-the poet wrote the Potter family a letter explaining that he had chosen someone who shared many of their daughter's wonderful characteristics.

"Into each life, some rain must fall." These words written by a young Longfellow, as he sat in the back room of the Longfellow-Wadsworth House, 489 Congress Street, unfortunately, proved prophetic.

Eighteen years after his marriage to Fanny Appleton, her dress caught fire while she was sealing locks of her children's hair. Longfellow rushed to save her, wrapping a carpet and his arms around her to blanket the blaze. But alas, she perished and for a time afterwards, so did Longfellow's writing of poetry.

Instead, the newly single father dealt with his depression by translating Dante and doting on the five children that he and Fanny had literally birthed together.

"Longfellow was a new man for his day, " says Dr. Irmscher. The loving husband not only sat with Fannie during childbirth but also obtained ether to ease her pain, making her the first woman in the United States to use the anesthetic for that purpose.

"Longfellow had a deep concern for the plight of women in general, " says Dr. Irmscher, professor of English, Indiana University. "The abundance of female writers in Longfellow's anthology, Poems of Places, reflects Longfellow's conviction that women writers were on a level equal to men . . ."

The poet was also unusually attentive to his children. In fact, the devoted father charmed his children with his whimsical drawings. (See the Art of the Longfellows, Maine Historical Historical Society Museum, February to June.)

Everyone in the poet's path, even Edgar Allen Poe, his most caustic critic, received his good-will. "If we could read the secret history of our enemies, "
Longfellow wrote, "we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."

And his readers? Hundreds of admirers who showed up at the poet's door were welcomed, and he corresponded with just as many, sometimes sending money to those in need.

Though generous, he was neither naïve or gullible. A multi-linguist, the originator of the Dante Club served as professor of modern languages at both Bowdoin College and Harvard University, and contributed greatly to our national identity, according to poet Annie Finch, Director, Stonecoast Brief Residency MFA in Creative Writing and professor of English at the University of Southern Maine.

"Longfellow is important to honor, " she says, "because he represents poetry at its cultural height: poetry that takes on the job of creating national identify and speaking to a
wide audience. He was a poet who was not afraid to have readers, and Americans did
read him, in our culture's formative years."

Longfellow lovers must tour the Wadsworth-Longfellow house. There, they will glimpse tangible objects that influenced the poet's melodic writing.

In the parlor, Longfellow's wooden flute still rests on a table and a piano stands against a wall. Importantly, each room contains a writing desk.

To honor Longfellow's writing, Cupid arches his arrow again. "The celebration of Longfellow's birth, " says Richard D'Abate, Executive Director, Maine Historical Society, "is designed to encourage us to learn more about him, and perhaps to think a little harder about the power and purpose of literature in our lives."