My mistress, I espouse thee for my tree:

Be thou the prize of honour and renown;

The deathless poet and the poem crown.

Thou shalt the Roman festivals adorn,

And after poets, be by victors won.

Thou shalt returning Cæsar’s triumph grace

When pomps shall in a long procession pass;

Wreath’d on the posts before his palace wait;

And be the sacred guardian of the gate,

Secure from thunder, and unharmed by Jove,