In forest fair stood Trefor now made whole;
the air around him swam with summer's heat;
with joy he felt his heart begin to beat,
and now he stood in sight of Arthur's goal!

But then he saw the blesséd golden girl
who in his vision played the Summer's part;
and Trefor in a moment lost his heart -
she seemed to him as precious as a pearl.

She looked a maid about his age to him -
although she had been slaughtered as a child,
perhaps it suited her as summer mild
to take the form of one so fair of limb.

Sad smiling, Summer fled on flying feet,
through trees that danced with gladness where she passed,
while earth sang skyward anthems unsurpassed,
and Trefor's heart, enraptured, madly beat.

He knew no longer quest, or liege, or vow,
but ran entranced as any boy in love,
incapable of thought before his dove,
the one to whom his whole emotions bow.

At forest's end they felt the wind's caress,
and Summer stopped, amidst a field of wheat;
poor Trefor cast him down before her feet,
his first awakened passions to express.

Sad Summer smiled a ghostly smile, and said,
"I could have loved you had I had a life;
but I shall ne'er be anybody's wife.
Yet one shall love you more than me, instead.

I welcome you this fine Midsummer's Day;
the seasons passed for others in your dreams.
The year is not as constant as it seems;
with Fairy Sight you've seen it fade away."

She vanished in an instant; Trefor wept.
He felt her loss as utterly as sun
departs the sky when all the day is done;
he knew this feeling not, and hoped he slept.

But when the fit had passed, he stood to stare;
he thought it Paradise, despite her loss;
as though old Eden he had come across -
yet there beside him, grazed the patient mare.