When a king of old wished to woo a fine lady, or a knight his fair maiden, he placed his smitten heart in the hands of the court poet.

With quill pen, foolscap, and a flair for the language of love, the poet accomplished what the tongue-tied nobleman could not: he put his client’s tenderest emotions into verse designed to enchant the female heart.

Mary Wickham of Monroe had long wondered whether the 16th-century tradition of hiring poets could be revived for today’s common folk. Like many others, Wickham was tired of the saccharine, off-the-rack sentiments that spilled from the word processors of the greeting-card industry. Would people be willing to foresake Hallmark, she asked herself, for custom-made poetry that “fit their unique situations like a glove?”

Last year, she decided to test her hunch. She invested in a good typewriter, found a calligraphy artist, and advertised her poetry-writing service in a small newspaper under the name “The Muse.”

With a masters degree in English and a passion for verse that grew from her teen-age years, Wickham, 46, felt well suited to the task. An eighth-generation native of North Parsonsfield, she bore four of her nine children, ages 3 through 27, at home. She educated several of them at home, too, and sent two daughters to Dartmouth and Colby. Wickham’s ancestors — a string of lawyers, farmers, teachers, doctors, mothers, feminists, and writers — had instilled in Wickham the belief that she could be anything she wanted to be.

She was already a violinist, painter, teacher, writer of education articles, wife, and doctoral candidate at the University of Maine. Why not a poet for hire?

Alas, no one responded to the ad. But when the newspaper wrote a brief story about Wickham’s unique service, it caught the attention of an editor from Glamour magazine who was vacationing in Maine at the time.

The editor interviewed Wickham by phone and wrote a story about her in the magazine’s September issue. Within days, The Muse of Monroe had become a busy poet indeed.

“I was absolutely flooded with orders from all over the country,” said Wickham, who is married to a rock `n’ roll musician named Steve Wickham. “I was getting three requests a day, from California, Texas, Michigan, everywhere.”

New requests still arrive daily, covering a wide range of emotions: love, friendship, admiration, regret, hope. They are sent by spouses, young lovers, old friends, parents, and children, each of them looking for a poem to say what’s in their hearts. The letters suggest the names, personal traits, emotions, and events to be included. Wickham responds with verse to suit each customer’s desire and pocketbook.

“The last one ordered haiku for her boyfriend, and she wanted it to be romantic, but not sappy,” said Wickham, who manages to block out the noise of five children while she works. “The woman wanted me to write about the relationship of the moon and the ocean.”

Adhering to the 17-syllable structure of haiku, Wickham wrote:

“To her lover, ocean

Moon sent a poem

She called it the tide.”

Wickham ended a poem from a mother to her son with the words:

“And it gives my heart its greatest content

To perceive in your dreams the part I lent

In love and appreciation — Mother.”

For a woman who was reunited with her old high school love after 20 years, Wickham composed a poem that was strewn with their shared memories. She wrote a poem for a woman who wanted a special tribute to read at her best friend’s wedding. She composed a tender poem, and had it penned in calligraphy, for a man to present to his beloved wife after 41 years of marriage:

“Love, you know me — I wrote the book

On just what it is that makes the heart blaze.”

Wickham has even written a poem for an unfaithful spouse that speaks of deep regret and hope for reconciliation. Called “Renewed Love,” it reads in part:

“The silent repeal of my great mistake

Goes on forever and ever, it seems.”

For $30, Wickham will write a poem of 30 lines or less — calligraphy is extra. She charges $50 for longer works, and $100 for haiku, which she sends to a friend in Japan who translates the words into Japanese characters and frames the poem. Some of the lines come easily to Wickham; she can write two a day, when the muse is upon her, and she has been known to compose lines in her sleep. Other poems may take days. All, however, are as individual as the lives they depict.

“People are a lot more complex than what the card shops can address,” Wickham said. “I try to write poems that fit them like a glove, things that Hallmark could never do.”

The Muse, Rural Route 1, Box 1190, Monroe, Maine