In Honor of Lighthouses on National Lighthouse Day

Portland Head Light, ME, photo by Chuck Turk

August 7 is National Lighthouse Day, the day on which we honor those majestic towers that were built to protect and guide mariners. Today, those lighthouses are historic symbols of man’s effort to help their fellowman. Many are still active aids to navigation despite modern technology, still standing guard at their assigned posts. Although many more have been deemed “excess” and have been extinguished, some of those have been saved from eventual deterioration, thanks to preservation-minded citizens.

This weekend, many of our national lighthouses will be open for this special observance. Please take advantage of the opportunity to visit them and help support the efforts to keep this heritage alive.

In honor of National Lighthouse Day, here is the first part of a poem written by America’s most famous poet of the mid-19^th century, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. A frequent visitor to Portland Head Lighthouse, Longfellow penned the poem in 1849 when lighthouses were a necessary part of coastal life.

Beavertail Lighthouse, RI, photo by Chuck Turk

The Lighthouse

The rocky ledge runs far into the sea,
And on its outer point, some miles away,
The Lighthouse lifts its massive masonry,
A pillar of fire by night, of cloud by day.

Even at this distance I can see the tides,
Upheaving, break unheard along its base,
A speechless wrath, that rises and subsides
In the white lip and tremor of the face.

Montauk Lighthouse, NY, Photo by Chuck Turk

And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright,
Through the deep purple of the twilight air,
Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light
With strange, unearthly splendor in the glare!

Not one alone; from each projecting cape
And perilous reef along the ocean’s verge,
Starts into life a dim, gigantic shape,
Holding its lantern o’er the restless surge.

Like the great giant Christopher it stands
Upon the brink of the tempestuous wave,
Wading far out among the rocks and sands,
The night-o’ertaken mariner to save.

Barnegat Lighthouse, NJ, photo by Chuck Turk

And the great ships sail outward and return,
Bending and bowing o’er the billowy swells,
And ever joyful, as they see it burn,
They wave their silent welcomes and farewells.

They come forth from the darkness, and their sails
Gleam for a moment only in the blaze,
And eager faces, as the light unveils,
Gaze at the tower, and vanish while they gaze.

The mariner remembers when a child,
On his first voyage, he saw it fade and sink;
And when, returning from adventures wild,
He saw it rise again o’er ocean’s brink.

Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same
Year after year, through all the silent night
Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame,
Shines on that inextinguishable light! 

You might recognize the line in the first stanza that came from the Bible: “By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.” Exodus 13:21. Apparently, Longfellow saw how lighthouses mirror God’s guidance. You can celebrate that light everyday.