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:
- Bound for your distant home poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Федор Сологуб – Терцинами писать как будто очень трудно
- Mind Extempore by Pawan Kumar
- Robert Burns: The Fete Champetre:
- O Singer in Brown by Mary Gilmore
- Most Precious by R. L. Karlowsky
- The Squirrel by Todd H. C. Fischer
- The Cinnamon Peeler by Michael Ondaatje
- To A Jilted Lover by Sylvia Plath
- Doomes-Day: The Tenth Houre by William Alexander
- Robert Burns: Inscription At Friars’ Carse Hermitage: To the Memory of Robert Riddell.
- A Farewell poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Written In A Blank Leaf Of Macpherson’s Ossian by William Wordsworth
- The Bangle Sellers by Sarojini Naidu
- Sonnet 105: Let not my love be called idolatry by William Shakespeare
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
- The Little Boy And The Old Man by Shel Silverstein
- The Land Of Happy by Shel Silverstein
- The Hunter by Shel Silverstein
- The Great Conch Train Robbery by Shel Silverstein
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
- The Generals by Shel Silverstein
- The Bridge by Shel Silverstein
- The Boa Constrictor Song by Shel Silverstein
- The Bear, The Fire, And The Snow by Shel Silverstein
- The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan by Shel Silverstein
- The Bagpipe Who Didn’t Say No by Shel Silverstein
- Testing The Bomb by Shel Silverstein
- Sylvia’s Mother by Shel Silverstein
- Sure Hit Songwriter’s Pen by Shel Silverstein
- Son Of A Scoundrel by Shel Silverstein
- Someone Ate The Baby by Shel Silverstein
- Someday’s Here by Shel Silverstein
- Somebody Has To by Shel Silverstein
- Smoke Off by Shel Silverstein
- Sing Me A Rainbow by Shel Silverstein
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.