This handwritten poem is one of two drafts of a work attributed to Civil War veteran and Bath poet Moses Owen. The poem was part of a collection of family letters. Contributed / Patten Free Library

Not a Mainer alive had been born when Moses Owen last put pen to paper. Born in 1838, the Bath native survived the Civil War but died long before he had a chance to grow old.

But Friday, Owen and other local poets will live again through their verse — for an afternoon, at least.

Patten Free Library’s History Room Live series returns Friday at 3 p.m. with “The Poetry of Maine,” a discussion of four poems from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

“I think it’s a way to kind of dip your feet in the water of thinking about poetry,” Archivist and Special Collections Librarian Mary Kate Kwasnik said of the free virtual event. “If you’ve ever wondered what happened in the area before you were here, this is a good way to look at it.”

Kwasnik will present poems written by Mary J. Cummings of Bowdoinham and Alice May Douglas and James Plaisted Webber, both Bath natives. After each reading, attendees will discuss the work and the local author who penned it.

A photograph of Moses Owen, who served in the Civil War before returning to Maine to work in the State House. Contributed / Patten Free Library

History Room regulars, who often spend time untangling family genealogies, may be particularly interested in an unpublished, handwritten poem attributed to Owen, according to Kasnik.

“The Grave by the Sea,” found in an archival collection of family letters, marks a departure from the Bath poet’s patriotic cannon, she said.

“It’s very emotive, very visual,” she said of the poem, which bears Owen’s signature. “I was really excited to see that because it feels so different than what’s published from him.”

The History Room Live presentation, the series’ first since November, is one of several of poetry events at Patten this April, according to Programs and Outreach Manager Hannah Lackoff.

Walkers can enjoy poetry during the month of April at Library Park. Contributed / Patten Free Library

The library is celebrating National Poetry Month by installing poems around Library Park, which visitors can enjoy day or night, Lackoff said. Staff recently named four local poets, including middle schoolers Nyssa Wilkinson and Acadia Guliani, winners in their spring writing contest.

“We wanted to jump in on that bandwagon and bring poetry in a more accessible way to people than just something that you had to read in school,” Lackoff said. “Poetry can be fun too.”

While history and poetry might seem like an odd fit, Bath Historical Society President Brenda Cummings argued they’re actually a natural pairing.

“History isn’t about dry facts, about knowing the date of this or the date of that,” she said. “It’s about feeling a connection, and poetry makes it possible to hit that place where’s there’s a connection.”

Cummings found that connection in Alice May Douglas, an activist and amateur historian who wrote a poem for the 1929 dedication of Davenport Memorial City Hall, where Cummings works as Bath’s assessor.

The poem, titled “The Davenport Memorial,” will teach the session’s attendees by bringing them directly into Bath’s past, Cummings said.

“Poetry is striving to capture in a flow of words a picture,” she said. “It’s not just a recitation of facts: it’s about the pleasure of the words.”