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:
- Николай Глазков – Про чертей
- Михаил Лермонтов – Я не люблю тебя
- Олег Сердобольский – Задумал слово я такое
- Street Cries by Sarojini Naidu
- Олег Сердобольский – Два кораблика
- Ярослав Смеляков – Земляника
- Woman by Manmohan Acharya
- It Is Not A Word by Sara Teasdale
- In a Subway Station by Sara Teasdale
- Dead On Arrival by Preethi Saravanakumar
- An Anniversary
- Birds heavenly by Sunil Sharma
- Sonnet 46: Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war by William Shakespeare
- Алексей Толстой – Пустой дом
- Ольга Берггольц – Здравствуй
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
- Николай Гумилев – Ночь
- Николай Гумилев – Никогда не сделаю я так
- Николай Гумилев – Неоромантическая сказка
- Николай Гумилев – Неизгладимы, нет, в моей судьбе
- Николай Гумилев – На Дуксе ли, на Бенце ль я
- Николай Гумилев – На далекой звезде Венере
- Николай Гумилев – На берегу моря
- Николай Гумилев – Мужик
- Николай Гумилев – Моя мечта летит к далекому Парижу
- Николай Гумилев – Мореплаватель Павзаний
- Николай Гумилев – Молитва мастеров
- Николай Гумилев – Маскарад
- Николай Гумилев – Маргарита
- Николай Гумилев – Маэстро
- Николай Гумилев – Мадагаскар
- Николай Гумилев – Людям будущего
- Николай Гумилев – Любовь весной
- Николай Гумилев – Луна на море
- Николай Гумилев – Лиловый цветок
- Николай Гумилев – Левин, Левин, ты суров
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.