Pandemonium: Some Verses on the Utter Beggaring of Belief

Tell, Mighty Wit, how the highest in forethought and,
That tremendous plus, The Science,
Saw off our panic and Globed vexation
Until a drape of calmness furled around the earth
And beckoned a new and greater normal into each life
For which we give plenty gratitude and pay
Willingly for the vict’ry triumph
Merited by these wisest gods.

Pandemonium is an epic mock-heroic poem, written in response to the pandemic with all the anger and wit that Armando Iannucci brings to his vision of contemporary events. It tells the story of how Orbis Rex, Young Matt and his Circle of Friends, Queen Dido and the blind Dom’nic did battle with ‘a wet and withered bat’ from Wuhan.