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:
- The Investiture by Siegfried Sassoon
- Николай Заболоцкий – Искушение
- By The Side Of The Grave Some Years After by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Я. П. Полонскому
- Fiesta Melons by Sylvia Plath
- The Road That Runs Beside The River by Thomas Lux
- The Key Role of Creativity in Advertising
- The Fairies Break Their Dances poem – A. E. Housman
- Владимир Маяковский – Трудовая взаимопомощь инвентарем (Агитплакаты)
- The Spring
- old-boy.html
- Don’t Ceäre by William Barnes
- Sonnet 68: Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn by William Shakespeare
- Яков Полонский – На Женевском озере
- Ольга Седакова – Вьюга
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 Redeemer by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Rear-Guard by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Poet as Hero by Siegfried Sassoon
- The One-Legged Man by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Old Huntsman by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Last Meeting by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Kiss by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Investiture by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Imperfect Lover by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Heritage by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Hawthorn Tree by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Goldsmith by Siegfried Sassoon
- The General by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Fathers by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Effect by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Dug-Out by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Dreamers by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Dream by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Dragon & The Undying by Siegfried Sassoon
- The Death-Bed by Siegfried Sassoon
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.