New England Diary

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A poet finds grace on the Maine Coast

Cape Neddick Light (circa 1920), in York, Maine, where May Sarton lived in her last years, after moving from Nelson, N.H.

"As I think about it today in my 81st year, looking out at the sea from my desk, I realize that what I have found in Maine is more than courtesy and kindness. It is grace.''

-- The late poet May Sarton, in "I Was on my Way Home Anyway,'' in the March 1994 Yankee magazine.
 

York is a well-known summer resort town, with 18-hole golf clubs, four sandy beaches and Mount Agamenticus, a remarkably high hill (692 feet) considering its proximity to the sea. There's lots of "old money'' there, perhaps best seen at the exclusive York Harbor Reading Room club.

-- Photo by Fredlyfish

At the top of Mount Agamenticus, in York.

 

 

"York Harbor, Coast of Maine'' (1877), by Martin Johnson Heade.