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:
- Married Peäir’s Love Walk by William Barnes
- Love And Death by Sara Teasdale
- After Love by Sara Teasdale
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – В метро
- Alexander
- Sonet 42 by William Alexander
- God Scatters Beauty by Walter Savage Landor
- Sleepless by Sara Teasdale
- Владимир Бенедиктов – К точкам
- Oblivion by Satish Verma
- Forty Years Later by Martin Willitts, Jr
- In My Own Shire, If I Was Sad poem – A. E. Housman
- Константин Бальмонт – Молитва последняя
- The Village Garden poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Gloucester Moods by William Vaughn Moody
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
- Lovesong by Ted Hughes
- Lineage by Ted Hughes
- How To Paint A Water Lily by Ted Hughes
- Hawk Roosting by Ted Hughes
- God’s Grandeur by Ted Hughes
- Full Moon and Little Frieda by Ted Hughes
- Examination at the Womb-Door by Ted Hughes
- Earth-Moon by Ted Hughes
- Crow’s Nerve Fails by Ted Hughes
- Crow’s Fall by Ted Hughes
- Bride and Groom Lie Hidden for Three Days by Ted Hughes
- A Woman Unconscious by Ted Hughes
- Weak by Tanisha Avarsekar
- The battle of fire by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Taketh away by Tanisha Avarsekar
- So tired by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Silent consolation by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Life a chess game by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Life a battlefield by Tanisha Avarsekar
- Late realizations by Tanisha Avarsekar
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.