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:
- Анатолий Жигулин – Марта, Марта! Весеннее имя
- Юлия Друнина – Царевна
- Their Frailty by Siegfried Sassoon
- Огюст Барбье – Корреджо
- Алексей Плещеев – Она и он
- Алексей Ржевский – Прости, Москва
- Владислав Крапивин – В южных морях и у севера дальнего
- Epigram on Francis Grose the Antiquary by Robert Burns
- A Character by William Wordsworth
- Runagate Runagate by Robert Hayden
- Alone, Looking for Blossoms Along the River by Tu Fu
- The Captive by Rudyard Kipling
- Юлия Друнина – Шторм
- Василий Жуковский – К мимо пролетавшему гению
- The Dream by Sylvia Plath
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
- Erin, Oh Erin by Thomas Moore
- Enigma by Thomas Moore
- Echo by Thomas Moore
- Drink To Her by Thomas Moore
- Drink of This Cup by Thomas Moore
- Did Not by Thomas Moore
- Dialogue Between a Sovereign and a One-Pound Note by Thomas Moore
- Desmond’s Song by Thomas Moore
- Dear Harp of my Country by Thomas Moore
- Cotton and Corn by Thomas Moore
- Come, Send Round the Wine by Thomas Moore
- Come, Rest in this Bosom by Thomas Moore
- Come O’er the Sea by Thomas Moore
- By That Lake, Whose Gloomy Shore by Thomas Moore
- Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms by Thomas Moore
- Befire the Battle by Thomas Moore
- Avenging and Bright by Thomas Moore
- At the Mid Hour of Night by Thomas Moore
- As Vanquish’d Erin by Thomas Moore
- As Slow Our Ship by Thomas Moore
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.