Lines on the Mermaid Tavern (1818)

Question 1

Written initially as a response to Reynolds poems on Robin Hood

Answer 1

The Mermaid Tavern was a gathering place for Elizabethan dramatist

Question 2

Souls of Poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known,
Happy field or mossy cavern,
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?
Have ye tippled drink more fine
Than mine host’s Canary wine?

Answer 2

Souls of Poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known,
Happy field or mossy cavern,
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?
Have ye tippled drink more fine
Than mine host’s Canary wine?

Question 3

I have heard that on a day
Mine host’s sign-board flew away,
Nobody knew whither, till
An astrologer’s old quill
To a sheepskin gave the story,
Said he saw you in your glory,

Answer 3

Underneath a new old sign
Sipping beverage divine,
And pledging with contented smack
The Mermaid in the Zodiac.

Question 4

Souls of Poets dead and gone,
What Elysium have ye known,

Answer 4

Happy field or mossy cavern,
Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?