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:
- Water by Wendell Berry
- Константин Бальмонт – Морская песня
- The AntiWorlds poem – Andrei Voznesensky poems
- Vernal Ode by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Высоцкий – Она была в Париже
- Taller To-day by W H Auden
- Федор Сологуб – Колёса по рельсам гудели
- On Your Midnight Pallet Lying poem – A. E. Housman
- Владимир Корнилов – На колоннаде
- Grandmother’s Teaching poem – Alfred Austin
- Sergei Esenin (Serguei Yesenin, Sergueï Essénine) – Sounds of Sorrow
- Schlummerland – Slumberland / CD by Roland Zoss
- Beachy Blues poem – Andrew Neil Maternick poems | Poems and Poetry
- Memory by Siegfried Sassoon
- Огюст Барбье – Видимость
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
- Imitated From The Japanese by William Butler Yeats
- I Am Of Ireland by William Butler Yeats
- Hound Voice by William Butler Yeats
- His Phoenix by William Butler Yeats
- His Dream by William Butler Yeats
- His Confidence by William Butler Yeats
- His Bargain by William Butler Yeats
- High Talk by William Butler Yeats
- Her Vision In The Wood by William Butler Yeats
- Her Triumph by William Butler Yeats
- Her Praise by William Butler Yeats
- Her Dream by William Butler Yeats
- Her Anxiety by William Butler Yeats
- He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead by William Butler Yeats
- He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by William Butler Yeats
- He Thinks Of Those Who Have Spoken Evil Of His Beloved by William Butler Yeats
- He Tells Of The Perfect Beauty by William Butler Yeats
- He Tells Of A Valley Full Of Lovers by William Butler Yeats
- The Cat And The Moon by William Butler Yeats
- The Cap And Bells by William Butler Yeats
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.