The Mermaid Tavern was a famous London tavern remembered in poetry and literary history as a meeting place for writers such as Ben Jonson, Francis Beaumont, and John Donne, and possibly William Shakespeare. Because of that association, it often appears as a symbol of literary fellowship and spirited conversation among poets.
John Keats later celebrated it in Lines on the Mermaid Tavern.
Example
At the Mermaid Tavern, the poets argued late into the night,
sliding from wit to rhyme to wine as candles burned low.