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Pool Journal · Word of the Week
Lambent: The Light That Dances on Pool Water
by Larry Szulc, Spectrum Pool Care
On a sunny afternoon, a net of light dances across the pool floor, bright lines that wobble, split and join again. There’s a lovely old word for that kind of light.
Lambent comes from the Latin lambere, “to lick.” English borrowed it in the 1600s to describe flames that seem to lick lightly over a surface without burning it, the way a candle flame plays along a wick or firelight flickers across a ceiling.
Over time the word softened and spread. Poets used it for any light that glows or flickers gently: lambent moonlight, the lambent glow of a lamp. It even came to describe a kind of wit, quick and bright and never harsh. Through all its uses, lambent keeps one quality: light that moves, plays and touches lightly.
Lambent light doesn’t glare. It plays, flickers and moves, and nowhere does it play more freely than on a pool.
The Pool
Lambent Light in Your Pool
The light net
Every ripple curves the surface into a small, moving lens. Where those lenses gather sunlight together, they paint bright lines on the floor, and the lines move as the ripples do.
Shimmer on the walls
The same light bounces back up, so a pool throws wavering light onto nearby walls, eaves and the underside of a patio cover.
A Los Angeles story
When painter David Hockney came to Los Angeles in the 1960s, he was captivated by its backyard pools, and his paintings are full of these playful, wobbly lines of light.
After dark
An underwater light turns the whole pool into a lantern, sending a soft, lambent glow across the water, the plants and the house.
Close to home: in Hollywood, David Hockney painted his wavy lines of light right onto the bottom of a hotel pool, and the real light net still dances on top of them. Read the Hollywood story →
When the Light Net Is at Its Best
The lines are sharpest under direct midday sun, with a light breeze making small ripples, over a light-colored pool finish. The pattern also changes with depth, finer in some spots and broader in others. When the water goes perfectly still, the net fades away, and a passing cloud softens it for a moment.
From our routes: crisp, lambent lines on the floor are one of the best signs of clean, clear water. After a weekly cleaning, with the floor brushed and the water balanced and limpid, the light net comes back sharper than ever. It’s a small reward we never get tired of seeing.
Written by Larry Szulc, owner of Spectrum Pool Care, a family-owned company serving the San Fernando Valley, Westside, Santa Monica and Malibu for more than 25 years.
