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:
- Ярослав Смеляков – Три витязя
- Air Of Diabelli’s by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Street Song by Sylvia Plath
- Иннокентий Анненский – Еврипид. Киклоп драма сатиров (перевод)
- Алексей Жемчужников – Отголосок девятой симфонии Бетховена
- ah poor moon by Raj Arumugam
- O, Were I Loved As I Desire To Be! poem – Lord Alfred Tennyson poems
- Listening to the moon by Yosa Buson
- The Paper Nautilus by Marianne Moore
- The Rival by Sylvia Plath
- The Generals by Shel Silverstein
- Additions: The Fire at Tranter Sweatley’s by Thomas Hardy
- Николай Карамзин – К бедному поэту
- IN VINCULUM by PEGGY AYLSWORTH
- Homecoming of Love on the Sands by Rafael Alberti
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
- Яков Полонский – Одному из усталых
- Яков Полонский – Ночная дума
- Яков Полонский – Ночь в Крыму
- Яков Полонский – Ночь на восточном берегу Черного моря
- Яков Полонский – Нищий
- Яков Полонский – Неотвязная
- Яков Полонский – Не жди
- Яков Полонский – Наплывает туча с моря
- Яков Полонский – На Женевском озере
- Яков Полонский – На закате
- Яков Полонский – На пути
- Яков Полонский – На искусе
- Яков Полонский – Н. А. Грибоедова
- Юлий Даниэль – Друзьям
- Юлий Даниэль – Дом
- Юлий Даниэль – Часовой
- Юлий Даниэль – Ах, недостреляли, недобили
- Юлий Даниэль – А в это время
- Юлиан Анисимов – Весенний дождь
- Юлиан Анисимов – Стихи мои, нежные гости
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.