midday
The next day as the three were at table Anselmo asked Lothario to recite something of what he had composed for his mistress Chloris ; for as Camilla did not know her , he might safely say what he liked . `` Even did she know her , '' returned Lothario , `` I would hide nothing , for when a lover praises his lady 's beauty , and charges her with cruelty , he casts no imputation upon her fair name ; at any rate , all I can say is that yesterday I made a sonnet on the ingratitude of this Chloris , which goes thus : SONNET At midnight , in the silence , when the eyes Of happier mortals balmy slumbers close , The weary tale of my unnumbered woes To Chloris and to Heaven is wont to rise . And when the light of day returning dyes The portals of the east with tints of rose , With undiminished force my sorrow flows In broken accents and in burning sighs . And when the sun ascends his star-girt throne , And on the earth pours down his midday beams , Noon but renews my wailing and my tears ; And with the night again goes up my moan . Yet ever in my agony it seems To me that neither Heaven nor Chloris hears . '' The sonnet pleased Camilla , and still more Anselmo , for he praised it and said the lady was excessively cruel who made no return for sincerity so manifest . On which Camilla said , `` Then all that love-smitten poets say is true ? ''