A poem by Alcaeus of Mytilene (c. 625/620 – c. 580 BC)
The rain of Zeus descends, and from high heaven
A storm is driven:
And on the running water-brooks the cold
Lays icy hold;
Then up: beat down the winter; make the fire
Blaze high and higher;
Mix wine as sweet as honey of the bee
Abundantly;
Then drink with comfortable wool around
Your temples bound.
We must not yield our hearts to woe, or wear
With wasting care;
For grief will profit us no whit, my friend,
Nor nothing mend;
But this is our best medicine, with wine fraught
To cast out thought.
A few random poems:
- Sir Giles’ War-Song by William Morris
- I am a sculptor, a molder of form by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Hunting Song by William Somervile
- Because by Sara Teasdale
- A Day on the Beach of War by Tony Stringfellow
- Upon The Sight Of A Beautiful Picture Painted By Sir G. H. Beaumont, Bart by William Wordsworth
- The Tree and the Marble by Mike Yuan
- When I Met My Muse by William Stafford
- Shattered Dreams. Broken Promises. by Russell James
- Story of a Drunk by Violet Uram
- Sonnet 66: Tired with all these, for restful death I cry by William Shakespeare
- He Is Calm, and I Am Too by Mahmoud Darwish
- Awake by Sara Herlihy
- To His Love When He Had Obtained Her by Sir Walter Raleigh
- English Poetry. Ella Wheeler Wilcox. The Blasphemy of Guns. Элла Уилкокс.
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Иван Мятлев – Падучая звезда
- Иван Мятлев – Приди, приди
- Иван Мятлев – Розы
- Иван Мятлев – Сельское хозяйство
- Иван Мятлев – Лютня
- Иван Мятлев – Наставление Гр[афине] Р[астопчиной]
- Иван Мятлев – Фонарики
- Иван Мятлев – Бывало
- Иван Мятлев – День рождения
- Иван Киуру – Роща заалела
- Иван Киуру – Теленок Леня
- Иван Киуру – Звездный полет
- Иван Киуру – Оазис
- Иван Киуру – От северной половины земного шара
- Иван Киуру – Песня моряка
- Иван Киуру – Человек
- Иван Киуру – Ершок с вершок
- Иван Киуру – Кот и жук
- Иван Киуру – Медовый аптекарь
- What’s wrong with volunteering?
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works

Alcaeus of Mytilene ( c. 625/620 – c. 580 Before Christ) ] was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria.