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:
- Федор Сологуб – Зачем жемчуг-роса в траве
- As the Time Draws Nigh. by Walt Whitman
- Николай Языков – Вторая присяга
- Владимир Высоцкий – Слева бесы, справа бесы
- Ballades IV – Of Life poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Sonnet Viii
- Юнна Мориц – Астры
- I have been tricked by flying too close by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- On The Lord Gen. Fairfax At The Seige Of Colchester poem – John Milton poems
- Sonnet 9: Is it for fear to wet a widow’s eye by William Shakespeare
- Jubal and Tubal Cain by Rudyard Kipling
- Джон Мильтон – Новым гонителям свободы
- Galahad In The Castle Of The Maidens by Sara Teasdale
- Ash Wednesday by T. S. Eliot
- You’re 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
- The Exeter Road poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The End poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Cyclists poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Cross-Roads poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Crescent Moon poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Coal Picker poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Coal Picker poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Captured Goddess poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Bungler poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Boston Athenaeum poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Book of Hours of Sister Clotilde poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Bombardment poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Blue Scarf poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Basket poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Allies poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- The Allies poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Teatro Bambino. Dublin, N. H. poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sword Blades and Poppy Seed poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
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.