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:
- Юнна Мориц – Дрожащие губы и скрежет плаща
- Wild Dark Love Song by Sharmagne Leland-St. John
- “`Were I a Poet, I would dwell” poem – Alfred Austin
- Old Deuteronomy by T. S. Eliot
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сказка о несчастных сказочных персонажах
- Федор Сологуб – Лежу и дышу осторожно
- Вера Павлова – Утро вечера мудренее
- Countrywomen by Katherine Mansfield
- Visiting a Dead Man on a Summer Day by Marge Piercy
- To a Gentleman and Lady on the Death of the Lady’s Brother and Sister by Phillis Wheatley
- Sonnet 30: When to the sessions of sweet silent thought by William Shakespeare
- The Harvest Bow by Seamus Heaney
- Владимир Маяковский – Славянский вопрос-то решается просто
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 05 by Torquato Tasso
- Heccar and Gaira by Thomas Chatterton
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
- Lord Roberts by Rudyard Kipling
- Loot by Rudyard Kipling
- Lichtenberg by Rudyard Kipling
- L’Envoi by Rudyard Kipling
- La Nuit Blanche by Rudyard Kipling
- Kitchener’s School by Rudyard Kipling
- Kim by Rudyard Kipling
- Justice by Rudyard Kipling
- Jubal and Tubal Cain by Rudyard Kipling
- In the Neolithic Age by Rudyard Kipling
- In the Matter of One Compass by Rudyard Kipling
- In Springtime by Rudyard Kipling
- If by Rudyard Kipling
- I Keep Six Honest… by Rudyard Kipling
- Hymn Before Action by Rudyard Kipling
- Hunting-Song of the Seeonee Pack by Rudyard Kipling
- Helen all Alone by Rudyard Kipling
- Harp Song of the Dane Women by Rudyard Kipling
- Half-Ballad of Waterval by Rudyard Kipling
- Gunga Din by Rudyard Kipling
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.