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 – Размышленья
- In the Small Hours by Wole Soyinka
- Шекспир – Разлука сердце делит пополам – Сонет 39
- Ярослав Смеляков – Стихи, написанные на почте
- Владимир Высоцкий – Сыт я по горло, до подбородка
- Юргис Балтрушайтис – Час обыкновенный
- Michael Angelo In Reply To The Passage Upon His Staute Of Sleeping Night by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Британишский – Младший брат
- Sonet 43 by William Alexander
- Lucky by Thomas Lux
- Was Then by AC Zenner
- Suggested by the Cover of a Volume of Keats’s poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- WHAT ENDING by Satish Verma
- Аля Кудряшева – Меня мотает тянет ведет налево
- Владимир Маяковский – Гимн обеду
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
- Илона Грошева – Мой друг Евгений
- Илона Грошева – Мечтается Алине
- Илона Грошева – Любовь две синички на ветке
- Илона Грошева – Когда приходит Дима в парк
- Илона Грошева – Каждый год в себе несет воскресение
- Илона Грошева – Ира
- Иида Дакоцу – Сложено на вечере поэзии хайку в храме Номандзи
- Иида Дакоцу – Сквозь зимнюю мглу
- Иида Дакоцу – Синтоистское святилище у подножия горы в Одани
- Иида Дакоцу – С землею смешались
- Иида Дакоцу – Розу покинув
- Игорь Северянин – Sirel
- Игорь Северянин – Синее
- Игорь Северянин – Симфония
- Игорь Северянин – Шутливая рондель
- Игорь Северянин – Щит-солнце
- Игорь Северянин – Парижские Жоржики
- Игорь Северянин – Памяти В. Башкина
- Игорь Северянин – Памяти О.Н. Чюминой
- Игорь Северянин – Памяти Н.И. Кульбина
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.