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:
- An Answer poem – Alfred Austin
- Yours & Mine poem – Alice Fulton poems | Poetry Monster
- Федор Сологуб – В моих мечтах такое постоянство
- Fragment – Wee Willie Gray (Song) by Robert Burns
- Олег Бундур – Настроение
- Town Planning Agencies by Tilottama Chatterjee
- The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket by Robert Lowell
- A Soliloquy Of The Full Moon, She Being In A Mad Passion by Samuel Coleridge
- The Lark by William Barnes
- Валерий Брюсов – Инкогнито
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- The Pond poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- O’er The Wide Earth, On Mountain And On Plain by William Wordsworth
- Новелла Матвеева – Пушкин
- Mystic Trumpeter, The. by Walt Whitman
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
- Unlyric Love Song
- Tube Station
- To Be Blind
- The Man In The Bowler Hat
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- The British
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More external links (open in a new tab):
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Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
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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.