Our Minds are Married, But We are Too Young

Eric Blair

(a.k.a. George Orwell)

Christmas 1918

Jacintha Buddicom

OUR MINDS are married, but we are too young

For wedlock by the customs of this age

When parent homes pen each in separate cage

And only supper-earning songs are sung.

Times past, when medieval woods were green,

Babes were betrothed, and that betrothal brief.

Remember Romeo in love and grief—

Those star-crossed lovers—Juliet was fourteen.

Times past, the caveman by his new-found fire

Rested beside his mate in woodsmoke’s scent.

By our own fireside we shall rest content

Fifty years hence keep troth with hearts desire.

We shall remember, when our hair is white,

These clouded days revealed in radiant light.

Note

Eric Arthur Blair was fifteen when he penned this love poem for Jacintha Buddicom.