According to biographer D. J. Taylor, the young Orwell displayed ‘an enthusiasm for poetry that in [his] formative years seems to have been as least as strong as any desire to write fiction’. Orwell’s poetry is not among his best known – or most highly praised – work, but nonetheless shares similar concerns to (and displays the dry sense of humour present in) his prose. Mere foothills in the range of Orwell’s work perhaps – but building up to the summits later scaled.  Contents: Awake! Young men of England The Italian soldier shook my hand Kitchener Romance Sometimes in the middle autumn days A Dressed Man A Little Poem The Pagan The Lesser Evil Ironic Poem about Prostitution Summer-like for an instant On a Ruined Farm near the His Master’s Voice Gramophone Factory