A Pilgrim's Path

Things Remembered

For some reason, two poems I memorized nearly a decade back came to mind a few days ago, and (once again) for some reason I can still recite them.

Fill for me a brimming bowl,
and let me in it drown my soul.
But put therein, some drug designed
to banish women from my mind.
For I want not the stream inspiring,
that fills the mind with fond desiring,
but I want as deep a drought
as e'er from Lethe's wake was quaffed.
From my despairing heart to charm,
the image of the fairest form
that every my reveling eyes beheld,
that ever my wandering fancy spelled.
In vain, away, I cannot chase,
the melting softness of that face.
The beaminess of those bright eyes;
that breast, earth's only paradise.
Had she but known how beat my heart,
and with one smile reliev'd its smart,
I should have felt a sweet relief;
I should have felt the joy of grief.
Yet as the Tuscan 'mid the snow
of Lapland thinks on sweet Arno,
even so forever shall she be,
the halo of my memory.

The other one is much more brief:

Give me women, wine, and snuff
Until I cry out, "Hold, Enough!"
You may do so sans objection,
'Til the day of resurrection.
For bless my beard, they aye shall be,
my beloved trinity.

Hmmmm . . . is there a common theme in these two Keats pieces? The things that occupy single men's minds are no mystery.