by George Orwell
OH! give me the strength of the Lion,
The wisdom of reynard the Fox
And then I'll hurl troops at the Germans
And give them the hardest of knocks.
Oh! think of the War Lord's mailed fist,
That is striking at England today:
And think of the lives that our soldiers
Are fearlessly throwing away.
Awake! Oh you young men of England,
For if, when your Country's in need,
You do not enlist by the thousand,
You truly are cowards indeed.
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Last updated March 26, 2023
This poem was the first work Orwell ever published. Written when he was only 11 years old, ‘Awake! Young Men of England’ appeared in the local newspaper Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard on 2 October 1914. The poem was published under Orwell’s real name, Eric Blair – he only adopted the pseudonym George Orwell in the 1930s.