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:
- Владимир Луговской – Баллада о пустыне
- Гавриил Державин – Пчелка
- Николай Заболоцкий – Испытание воли
- Address spoken by Miss Fontenelle by Robert Burns
- Жан де Лафонтен – Львиный указ
- Владимир Маяковский – Два не совсем обычных случая
- Disappointment by Tony Hoagland
- Debris. by Walt Whitman
- On a Portrait of a Deaf Man poem – John Betjeman poems
- Asleep by Wilfred Owen
- While Summer Suns O’er the Gay Prospect Play’d by Thomas Warton
- So I Said I Am Ezra poem – A. R. Ammons poems | Poetry Monster
- The Death Of Huss poem – Alfred Austin
- The Princess: A Medley: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- The Loving Game by Vernon Scannell
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
- Welcome A.O.H. Men by Michael McGovern
- Weekend Glory by Maya Angelou
- Twilight Acts of Decadence. by Michael Levy
- Travel to Infinite Places by Michael Levy
- To A Cricket by Michael McGovern
- The Woods At Night by May Swenson
- The Waradgery Tribe by Mary Gilmore
- The Rock Cries Out to Us Today by Maya Angelou
- The Passing of Stumpy Shore by Mervyn John Webster
- The Mothering Blackness by Maya Angelou
- The Meaning of Music by Mercedes Madrigal
- The Lesson by Maya Angelou
- The January Birds by Maurice Riordan
- The Hermit Goes Up Attic by Maxine Kumin
- The Gravy Train by Michael Levy
- The Fishermen, The Gulls & The Bible People by Michael Estabrook
- The First Thrush by Mary Gilmore
- The Fairies Break Their Dances by A. E. Housman
- The Burning Crusade by Memphis Knight
- The Rolling Mills by Michael McGovern
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.