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:
- Story of a Drunk by Violet Uram
- Василий Жуковский – Из альбома, подаренного Ростопчиной (Пушкин)
- In The Month When Sings The Cuckoo poem – Alfred Austin
- Industrial Lace poem – Alice Fulton
- Sonnet LXIV: When I Have Seen by Time’s Fell Hand Defac’d by William Shakespeare
- Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Олег Бундур – Настроение
- Олег Бундур – Наши неприятности
- Владимир Маяковский – Долой мешечников (РОСТА №525)
- Robert Burns: Election Ballad For Westerha’:
- Adam: A Sacred Drama. Act 5. by William Cowper
- Олег Бундур – Не боюсь
- Владимир Луговской – Севастополь
- The Fraser River by Mike Yuan
- Владимир Маяковский – Только организация урожай умножит… (Главполитпросвет №33)
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
- Before a Midnight Breaks in Storm by Rudyard Kipling
- Beast and Man in India by Rudyard Kipling
- As the Bell Clinks by Rudyard Kipling
- Army Headquarters by Rudyard Kipling
- Arithmetic on the Frontier by Rudyard Kipling
- Anchor Song by Rudyard Kipling
- An Old Song by Rudyard Kipling
- An Imperial Rescript by Rudyard Kipling
- An Astrologer’s Song by Rudyard Kipling
- An American by Rudyard Kipling
- A Truthful Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Tree Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Three-Part Song by Rudyard Kipling
- A Tale of Two Cities by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song of Travel by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song of the White Men by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song of the English by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song of Kabir by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song In Storm by Rudyard Kipling
- A Song at Cock-Crow 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.