Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described the "Mouldering Vine," which grew at the rear of his family's home in Portland, in his poem, "The Rainy Day."

The section of the poem reads:
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

When the vine died in about 1902, Maine Historical Society owned the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, and saved this section, which hung in the house for many years.