Long hours, hours spent delayed in haste,
Our Lady Day has worked and wrought her way,
Until her trees are sagging, streams laid waste.
No time was spared to let her mind away.
So Day in patient expectation waits
For gentle Night to lay his velvet cloak
Upon her shoulders, summon her to sate
Her weariness in soft, secure repose.
And Night in shining new amour does come,
He sparks brightly, mellow strides his pace.
Then Day with well-contented face lies numb
Inside regenerative Night’s embrace.
And so you pass the time and wait for me,
And I in time will come and we will be.
"Sonnet VIII" was first published in Son(love)nets, 1975. The romantic persona compares himself to a personified Night (and an implied knight) that will come to rescue and comfort his one true love, who is Day personified (Lady Day: an allusion to Billie Holiday, who found little rest and comfort in this life outside her music). The metaphor is a clever conceit, but once again, the persona seems to be doing all the steadying in the relationship while the one true love seems needy.
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