When All the Lights Go Out
Dedicated to the crews that rowed in the 2006 Navy-Yale dual match races
It isn’t cause for fright or fear.
No panicked scream or shout
cuts the Severn’s breezy air
when Navy’s Lights go out.
It doesn’t turn to darkness.
That’s not what it’s about,
as Yale men pack the Gilder rafts
to see their Lights go out.
Last weekend Navy first launched
her unraced black hulled shell
to row down Princeton’s Tigers,
and, yes, the day went well.
She slid off still untested,
but when she came back in,
the Jon Eric VanAmringe
had Navy’s maiden win.
This weekend Navy meets Yale
for this year’s first great test
of whether blue, or blue and gold,
can move their boat the best.
May both crews row their fastest!
May it be a classic bout!
May flashing oars light each proud heart
as all the Lights go out.
Thomas E. “Big Gulp” Weil, Jr., Yale ‘70
31 March 2006