By Colin W. Sargent<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n I<\/span>f you\u2019re looking for \u201cbeauty overload,\u201d Edna St. Vincent Millay is your guide to the exquisite. The local Rockland girl\u2019s secret retreat, where she rose above sea level to listen for \u201cthe ticking of eternity,\u201d was the summit of Mt. Battie in Camden.<\/span><\/p>\n As the New York Times<\/i> reports, \u201cMount Battie, where Millay was inspired to write Renascence<\/i>, rises sharply [above the] panorama of the Lincolnville-Camden-Rockport area, that 10-mile stretch of coast often described as one of the prettiest along the Eastern seaboard. On a clear day one can look, as Millay did, to the mountains west and north, over the bay and islands to Acadia to the east, and down to Camden Harbor and Rockport to the south. Near the small observation tower is a map identifying the islands that dot the bay, and a plaque commemorating Millay. Renascence <\/i>ends with her lying on the solitary mountaintop discovering how easy it is to be in touch with the universe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n After Millay was world famous, she bought Ragged Island (off Orr\u2019s Island). For decades, lobstermen gossiped about seeing her nude on her private isle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Portland Magazine Summerguide 2017 Maine\u2019s landscape inspires stunning poetry. By Colin W. Sargent If you\u2019re looking for \u201cbeauty overload,\u201d Edna St. Vincent Millay is your guide to the exquisite. The local Rockland girl\u2019s secret retreat, where she rose above sea level to listen for \u201cthe ticking of eternity,\u201d was the summit of Mt. Battie in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-extras"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13766"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13773,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13766\/revisions\/13773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Camden](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Edna-St.-Vincent-Millay-SG17-photo-by-ben-williamson-300x200.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Millay](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Millay-in-dogwood-150x150.jpg\")
To channel Millay (1892-1950), you can either 1) work your knuckles raw as the impoverished child of a mom who had to move from house to house to stay ahead of bill collectors in Rockland, or 2) book a room at the gorgeous Whitehall Inn in Camden, where Millay stunned the annual Waitresses\u2019 Ball one summer\u2019s end with her recitation of Renascence<\/i>, later published in Atlantic Monthly<\/i>. A visiting tourist was so moved upon hearing Millay dramatic rendition that after the show, she offered to give her a full scholarship to Vassar.<\/p>\n