Whatever happened to love letters, to love poems … to that classic kind of romance? It’s a question some of us are wont to ponder every now and again, and with the release of Jane Campion’s new film, "Bright Star," it’s one that’s been on our minds a lot lately.

John Keats was one of the most romantic poets of the 19th century and author of the familiar and oft-taught Odes – to a Nightingale, on a Grecian Urn, on Melancholy. But less widely known is the story of the love in his life, Fanny Brawne. When Keats was 23 he began a relationship with his neighbor, then-18-year-old Fanny. He originally considered her a "minx," but as he got to know her, he fell in love. During their relationship, which in its short two years was packed with emotion, jealousy and longing, Keats penned, among other works, three of his most well-known poems: the aforementioned Odes. The love between Keats and Brawne was so great that it inspired some of his most powerful romantic poems of all.

The film "Bright Star," called "a piece of cinematic poetry" by film critic and Keats scholar Annette Isdorf, takes a close look at the poet and this great love. When asked what drew her to the story of Keats and Brawne, Director Jane Campion told wOw, "I fell in love with the love story. It really affected me profoundly. I didn’t know about it and I didn’t know you could know so much about it." There have been volumes written about Keats but so little written about Brawne, and Keats ordered the bulk of her letters to him burned with his death. Yet, with the help of 33 surviving love letters written by Keats to Brawne, "It made me feel like you could have very intimate access into the details of it – and I loved all the little obstacles and the hesitations," said Campion. "I liked that it was a story that talked about the little complications of two people getting close and committing."

Campion was drawn to the poetry, as was the star of the film, Abbie Cornish, who plays Fanny Brawne. Of the letters, said Cornish, "I was fascinated by Keats’s poetry. For me that was a huge insight. To be honest, sometimes his poems gave me more information than anything else about the depth of their love together and how much it meant to him and to her."

Click here to see photos from the film "Bright Star."

Now, we wonder: Is the art of the love poem and the love letter lost? In this digital day and age, long, hand-written, thoughtful letters – let alone poems – seem so far from our minds as we dash off 160-character texts, e-mails and instant messages on the fly. Everything and everyone seem to be going paperless and, with that, seemingly thoughtless. Is there a chance, however, for a resurgence of interest in the thoughtful, time-consuming written word? When wOw asked Cornish if she thinks a movie such as "Bright Star," when it hits the mainstream, could ever have the power to inspire in people the desire and incentive to start regularly writing love letters once again, she spoke with optimism. "I hope so. I just like the idea of people feeling. When I was in rehearsals I was fascinated by it. Everything kind of switched on like that for me a lot more – flowers, trees, the breeze, people’s smiles, children, I’d see a guy reach for his girl’s hand. Everything becomes so much more magnified, you know, the beauty of life." She continued, "I think so often it’s about the way we’re perceiving the world around us and you can put yourself in the exact same situation, but depending on your state of mind, or how distracted or stressed you are, you can see it completely differently."