The Complete Poetry

by George Orwell, Dione Venables (Editor), Peter Hobley Davison (Introduction)

Dione Venables, cousin of his first poetic muse, Jacintha Buddicom, has had the bright idea of putting together a currently complete collection of George Orwell's poetry. It is a valuable and interesting anthology. Most would agree that compared with Orwell, the essayist, journalist and novelist, Orwell the poet is an unremarkable figure. But, whatever one might think of his verse as literature, from a biographical viewpoint it carries rather more weight and meaning. Certainly, like his other writings, it reflects movements of his mind over time, and is perhaps better read in that light. However, poems such as 'An Italian Soldier Shook my Hand' and 'A Happy Vicar I Might Have Been' are clear exceptions, and some, such as his amusing jingle about the Burmese woman out-haggling her would-be customer, are highly entertaining. And his early 'love' poems to Jacintha, his Kiplingesque poems from school and Burmese days, and various political poems are also quite revealing. In addition, the book benefits from a running commentary by the editor and an essay by Peter Davison. No Orwell aficionado should be without this collection.
Gordon Bowker

Genres: Poetry, Audiobook

63 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Eric Arthur Blair was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to all totalitarianism (both fascism and stalinism), and support of democratic socialism.

Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945) and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), although his works also encompass literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. His non-fiction works, including The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), documenting his experience of working-class life in the industrial north of England, and Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences soldiering for the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), are as critically respected as his essays on politics, literature, language and culture.

Orwell's work remains influential in popular culture and in political culture, and the adjective "Orwellian"—describing totalitarian and authoritarian social practices—is part of the English language, like many of his neologisms, such as "Big Brother", "Thought Police", "Room 101", "Newspeak", "memory hole", "doublethink", and "thoughtcrime". In 2008, The Times named Orwell the second-greatest British writer since 1945.

Reviews

[Amani Abusoboh (أماني أبو صبح) · Rating 1 out of 5]

مجموعة باهتة جداً لروائي عظيم. أحبه جداً في الرواية أما الشعر لم يرقني!

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don’t understand poetry but i enjoyed these

[Rahaf İbrahim · Rating 3 out of 5]

لا يُخفى على أحد ممن يعرفني أن جورج من كتّابي المفضلين، ولا يخفى على أحد أيضا براعته وذكائه الروائي، ولا يخفى على أي أحد قرأ هذا الكتاب انه لم يكن بالمستوى المطلوب أو المتوقع ورغم أن الشعر إذا ما تُرجمَ فَقدَ نصف جماله-إن لم يكن أكثر- ولكنني أحب جورج كيفما كتب ولست نادمة على هذه القراءة ابدًا فقد قربتني أكثر منه رغم المستوى المتدني!.

[Rennier Castañeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro que pienso, vale totalmente la pena, ver la evolución de Orwell como poeta desde niño hasta sus grandes obras es valioso para cualquier persona que le guste la lectura.

La introducción del libro es bastante buena y le agrega valor al libro.

No sé mucho de poesía, de hecho es mi primer poemario pero si creo que como son poemas escritos la mayoría en su juventud pues no son tan relevantes, aquellos que escribe más adulto es notable la mejoría de los mismos esto contextualizado la época y sus vivencias.

Podría concluir que es un libro que me gustó en mi profundo desconocimiento del área.

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned:
“The lack of rhymes in English is a very serious difficulty and gets more serious all the time as familiar rhymes get more and more hackneyed but I’ve always felt that of one is to use imperfect rhymes it would be better to make the vowel sound and the consonant the same…”

I doubt that I’m going to be a completist as I’ve never found Orwell to have the most immediately approachable content (do I partially blame John Hurt images for this?!), but the depths, range and impact from stories can’t be denied - an amazing mix of contemporary social commentary, woven around timeless studies of humanity and general philosophy. This is therefore a useful backdrop for the start of the writing career to fill in some of the gaps - the simplicity of some student comedy, moving through the honesty and confusion of first love, to the country and conflict more familiar style from having two world wars dominate, pretty much, his entire lifespan. Sometimes I can see dates and nod and let them fall from my head, but this really puts context on the influence on a key English author.

Unlike a traditional oral poetry book, this is more a mixture of a narrated biography by the author and an obvious fan of the studies, and the poetry performance from another, but for me this worked - thanks Eric - I’m really looking forward to digging into some of the penguin classic shorts that I’ve bought now

The Italian soldier shook my hand, 1942
“Your name and your deeds were forgotten before your bones were dry
And the lie that slew you is buried, under a deeper lie”

[Qabas Albawy · Rating 4 out of 5]

تحت كذبة اعمق
تدفن معك الكذبة التي قتلتك.

[Dunya Al-bouzidi · Rating 1 out of 5]

"ثم جلجل صوت بشري في أذني،
'انتبه لنفسك أيها الأحمق!'
يا لروعة الصوت الذي جلجل أذني!
عذب كأجراس الزفاف،
الصوت الذي أنقذني من الجنون في لجة الأمواج والرياح،
في فم ذلك الجحيم."


"يهفو قلبي إلى عقلكِ الحاني
رغم كل تلك الحقول المشمسة وظلال السحب المترامية على الأرض
لا يمكن لحبي أبدًا أنْ يلمس قلبكِ اللامبالي."


"يا أيها الغريب العابر من هنا،
وأنت تقرأ هذي العبارات المرحّبة، لا تذرف الدموع،
بل خذ هذه الهدية
وتعلم مني كيف تعيش."


"تحت كذبة أعمق
تدفن معك الكذبة التي قتلتك."

[Sammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poetry really isn't my thing, and to be fair, I can't detect much difference in quality between this and for example the Robert Frost collection I read earlier this year. But by all accounts, Orwell wasn't much of a poet, and this is probably only worth it for Orwell completists (I'm not there yet, but getting there slowly, lol).

[Michael Arnold · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an odd little book. It is more of an essay about all of George Orwell's poetry that also happens to include all his poetry, rather than being just a collection of poetry. The editors were brave in trying to collect this material, introduce it, and advocate Orwell's poetry as serious work - and they really do make it sound really interesting and impressive. It's just a shame they also include the poems themselves, because Orwell was not a good poet. At all. He could write a decent tune and wasn't a bad lyricist, but that is not the same thing as being a good poet.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

El més interessant no és la poesia en sí, sino el resum biogràfic que va presentant els poemes.

[Peter Longden · Rating 4 out of 5]

#thesealeychallenge Day 12
‘George Orwell: The Complete Poetry’ by Dione Venables
This is more biography with a sprinkling of poetry but, that said, I found it very enjoyable. I’ve read mostly his prose so it is interesting to hear about his inspiration to write poetry (from an early age) and to hear some of his more political satire in poetry form for a change. Overall, a very interesting book.

[Vortex · Rating 1 out of 5]

جورج العزيز،

أود أن أعبر لك عن إعجابي العميق بفنك الروائي، فقد أسرتني كلماتك ورسمت أمامي عوالم من الإبداع الباهر الذي لا يشبهه شيء، فبين سطورك أجد ثورة على كل ما هو زائف و قدرة على سبر أعماق النفس البشرية وتحليلها بكلمات عميقة، وخلق عوالم من الأفكار التي لا تُنسى.

لكنني، وبكل صدق، أجد أن قلمك الشعري لا يماثل في بريقه وإبداعه قلمك الروائي. لعل الشعر ليس مكانك الأسمى، فكل ما يفيض في نثرك من قوة وجمال يبدو لي أقل حضورًا في أبياتك.

[NeoKhaledism · Rating 2 out of 5]

قرأته مترجماً من دار المدى.

رغم عدم اهتمامي الكبير بالشعر وخصوصاً المترجم الا أنني قرأته بسبب أنها قصائد أورويل لا أكثر، توقعت أن أقرأ لأورويل الثوري السياسي اليساري ولكنها كانت قصائد يغلب عليها الطابع الرومانسي بعض الشيء بحكم أنها كتبت في صغره عندما كان واقعاً في الحب وباسمه القديم إريك بلير.

لم تعجبني أي منها وأزعجي جداً تفسير وتقديم القصائد.

[Andrea Swinsco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only a handful of poems are featured in this edition, which I found melancholic and wonderful. However the majority of the book is more like a school textbook with overly lengthy opinions, some historical context, and far too much about the commentators themselves rather than about George or his poetry.

[Sadiq · Rating 2 out of 5]

بالرغم من أني أحب كتابات أورويل إلا أن الكتاب لك يكن بتلك القوة فلم يوضح المترجم المراد من الكتابات بشكل أكثر تفصيلا ، ولم يضع النص بالإنجليزي أو مكانه للإطلاع عليه.

يعرض الكتاب تطور شخصية أرويل من صغره إلى موته بنزيف هائل.
أخيرا أرى أن شخصية أورويل شخصية فريدة تستحق تسليط الضوء عليها وأبدي اهتمامي بمعرفة علاقاته ورؤيته السياسية التي ساهمت في رسم إحدى أعظم الروايات في التاريخ 1984.

[Prince · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book, as you follow Orwell's journey into his style and influences specifically with his poetry. There are some poems in this collection, where the editors are uncertain if they are written by Orwell or not. Contains a long essay which is interrupted by his poems.

[Miss Jools · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dione Venables offers excellent commentary on these poems, and she’s quite upfront about their sometimes dubious quality.

Really interesting, offering a great insight to Orwell and superbly read by Greg Wise and Venables herself.

[ilovemybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Le doy 2 estrellas porque Orwell es uno de mis autores favoritos y porque lo importante de estos poemas es ver la evolución vital del autor y cómo cambian sus temas, pero verdaderamente no era un buen poeta.

[Fátima López Sevilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orwell was a great writer, story-teller, and chronicler, but a poet he was not. 😅
It was a very interesting book nonetheless, because of all of the historical and biographical context, and it was interesting to see that side of him. That alone was worth at least one star.

[Pierre Sotér · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eric Blair loved poetry, too. An account of the other side of the man that wrote the dystopian 1984.

[Ivana Vrande · Rating 4 out of 5]

not the best book by george orwell but it is nice to see other work by thei writer

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent writer. Unremarkable (but still good) poet.

[Charlotte Dunn]

Damn there’s a reason you don’t hear much of orwell’s poetry… the Animal Farm stanzas are as good as it gets imo

[Valentina · Rating 2 out of 5]

medio weird

[★Haifaء★ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Idk how to describe my feelings ..

[Priyanshi Mathur · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a lovely collection of poems sprinked with context about little Eric/George Orwell’s life. Fascinating and truly enjoyable!

[cypher · Rating 5 out of 5]

i never knew Orwell wrote poetry. nice to have this collected in one volume.

[Léna · Rating 3 out of 5]

j’ai bien aimé la structure du recueil

[E. G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Foreword, by Dione Venables
Preface: Orwell and poetry, by Peter Davison

--'Awake! Young Men of England'
--Kitchener
--Song 1. Come Up, Come Up, Ye Kindly Waves
--Song 2. Three Beggars Begged by Noon & Night
--The Pagan
--Our Minds are Married
--To A.R.H.B.
--Wall Game
--After Twelve
--Ode to Field Days
--The Photographer
--The Wounded Cricketer
--The Youthful Mariner
--Friendship and Love
--Jacintha's Reply
--Dear Friend: Allow Me For a Little While
--Romance. Burma
--When the Franks Have Lost Their Sway
--Brush Your Teeth
--The Lesser Evil
--My Love and I Walked in The Dark
--John Flory: Epitaph
--King Charles II: song by Sir John Digby
--Sometimes in the Middle Autumn Days
--Summer For an Instant
--A Dressed Man and a Naked Man
--from Burmese Days: J. Flory couplet
--On a Ruined Farm Near His Master's Voice Gramophone Factory
--St Andrew's Day, November 1935
--Advertisement: Why Should You be Thin and White? (Keep the Aspidistra Flying)
--A Happy Vicar I Might Have Been
--Limericks
--Scraps of Nonsense Poetry
--The Italian Soldier
--As One Combatant to Another; Letter to 'Obadiah Hornbooke'
--Memories of the Blitz
--Beasts of England (Animal Farm)
--Animal Farm couplet
--Comrade Napoleon (Animal Farm)
--Were There Always These Vistas (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
--Song: Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
--Epitaph to Joseph Higgs

Abbreviations
Textual Notes
Index of First Lines
Acknowledgements

[Alanseinfeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good read and a great introduction to Orwell's poetry. I particularly enjoyed the background given to each poem and Orwell's thinking/mood at the time of writing. Highly recommend.