A poem by Alcaeus of Mytilene (c. 625/620 – c. 580 BC)
What constitutes a State?
Not high-raised battlement, or labored mound,
Thick wall or moated gate;
Not cities fair, with spires and turrets crown’d;
No:–Men, high-minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued
In forest, brake or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude:–
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain;
Prevent the long-aimed blow,
And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain.
A few random poems:
- The Poet Angels Who Came To Dinner
- Scenes Of The Mind
- Hyperion. Book I poem – John Keats poems
- Владимир Маяковский – Разговор с товарищем Лениным
- I love you by Inganathi Ntantiso
- Олег Сердобольский – Зимний кот
- Robert Burns: Farewell To Ballochmyle:
- Consumption by William Cullen Bryant
- Cruel Kindness by Rabindranath Tagore
- May 19th – the Young Pioneers Day
- Ольга Берггольц – Какая тёмная зима
- Song—Bessy and her Spinnin Wheel by Robert Burns
- Love’s Wisdom poem – Alfred Austin
- Davideis A Sacred Poem Of The Troubles Of David Excerpt
- The Shy Man by William Barnes
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
- A Serenade poem – Alexander Pushkin
- A Magic Moment I Remember poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Winter – The Fourth Pastoral, or Daphne poem – Alexander Pope
- Vertumnus and Pomona : Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book 14 [v. 623-771] poem – Alexander Pope
- Verses Left by Mr. Pope poem – Alexander Pope
- Translation of a Prayer of Brutus poem – Alexander Pope
- To the Author of a Poem Entitled Succession poem – Alexander Pope
- To Mrs. M. B. On Her Birthday poem – Alexander Pope
- To Mr. Thomas Southern, on his Birth-Day poem – Alexander Pope
- To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu poem – Alexander Pope
- The Three Gentle Shepherds poem – Alexander Pope
- The Temple of Fame poem – Alexander Pope
- The Messiah : A Sacred Eclogue poem – Alexander Pope
- The Looking-Glass. : on Mrs. Pulteney poem – Alexander Pope
- The Iliad: Book VI (excerpt) poem – Alexander Pope
- The Fable of Dryope – Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 9, [v. 324-393] poem – Alexander Pope
- The Dying Christian to His Soul poem – Alexander Pope
- The Dunciad: Book IV poem – Alexander Pope
- The Dunciad: Book III. poem – Alexander Pope
- The Dunciad: Book II. poem – Alexander Pope
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.