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:
- Владимир Набоков – Расстрел
- Others may Praise what They Like. by Walt Whitman
- Nutting by William Wordsworth
- Address to Beelzebub by Robert Burns
- Юрий Верховский – Ах, душечка моя, как нынче мне светло
- A Ghost in the Shell by Talha Jafri
- Аля Кудряшева – В этом городе птичий полет шелестит быстролистыми кленами
- A Wink From Hesper by William Ernest Henley
- An Empty Threat by Robert Frost
- I Belong There by Mahmoud Darwish
- Lord Gregory: A Ballad by Robert Burns
- A February Night poem – Amy Cavanaugh poems | Poems and Poetry
- Ольга Берггольц – Встреча
- The Palace of Art poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Владимир Степанов – Галочка-считалочка
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
- Оливер Голдсмит – Пыл упований людям дан
- Оливер Голдсмит – Послание в прозе и стихах
- Оливер Голдсмит – Подношение
- Оливер Голдсмит – Песенка
- Оливер Голдсмит – Опровержение логики
- Оливер Голдсмит – Оленья туша
- Оливер Голдсмит – Каждому по заслугам
- Оливер Голдсмит – Эпитафия Неду Пардону
- Ольга Высотская – Звёздочки
- Ольга Высотская – Здравствуй, праздник
- Ольга Высотская – Я зубы стисну, губы закушу
- Ольга Высотская – Волны
- Ольга Высотская – Веселый поезд
- Ольга Высотская – Снежный кролик
- Ольга Высотская – Первые заморозки
- Ольга Высотская – Обидчивая кукушка
- Ольга Высотская – Гости
- Ольга Высотская – Ежик
- Ольга Высотская стихи: лучшие стихотворения для детей Высотской – Poetry Monster
- Ольга Высотская – Детский сад
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.