‘Dripping jawful’

North Haven and the Fox Islands Thoroughfare viewed from Rockland, Maine.

“The bight is littered with old correspondences.
Click. Click. Goes the dredge,
and brings up a dripping jawful of marl.
All the untidy activity continues,
awful but cheerful.’’

—From “The Bight,’’ by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, who was born in Worcester and died in Boston but lived in many places in between, including North Haven, Maine, where she had a summer place.

Goes with the territory

“The roaring alongside he takes for granted,
and that every so often the world is bound to shake.

“He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,
in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.’’

—From “Sandpiper,’’ by famed American poet Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), who was born in Worcester and died in Boston. She lived in Brazil, among other places.

She spent parts of six summers (1974-1979) on the island town of North Haven Island, Maine, best known for its summer colony of prominent Northeasterners, particularly Boston Brahmins. Among the more notable summer residents was the painter Frank Weston Benson, who rented the Wooster Farm as a summer home and painted several canvases set on the island.

Harborfront and ferry terminal on the island of North Haven.

— Photo by Jp498

“Summer,’’ by Frank Weston Benson

Where to live

“Let us live in the land of the whispering trees,
                Alder and aspen and poplar and birch,

Singing our prayers in a pale, sea-green breeze,

               With star-flower rosaries and moss banks for church.’’

-- From “For C.W.B., by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979). The celebrated poet was born in Worcester and often summered in North Haven, Maine, after she became famous.

Elizabeth Bishop’s summer house, on the island of North Haven, Maine. This Wikipedia entry is a pretty good description of North Haven:

”In the 1880s, the island was discovered by ‘rusticators,’ seasonal residents first from Boston, then followed a decade or two later by others from New York and Philadelphia. North Haven is best known today for its sizable summer colony of prominent Northeasterners, particularly Boston Brahmins, drawn to the island for over a century to savor its simple way of life. Among the more notable summer residents was the impressionist painter Frank Weston Benson, who rented the Wooster Farm as a summer home and painted several notable canvases set on the island.’’

"Summer" (1909), by Frank Weston Benson