Tyrannosaurus Rex versus the Corduroy Kid

Armitage, Simon R. (2006) Tyrannosaurus Rex versus the Corduroy Kid. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0571233252

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Abstract

Tyrannosaurus Rex versus The Corduroy Kid engages with the matter of ‘Merrie England’, here and now. The poet’s preoccupation with utopias and new republics, with visions and intimations, is in the service of a sharpened focus upon this island - ‘here at the Empire’s end’ - just as his evolutionary concerns lock into a heightened sense of where we now stand, in the company of animals (birds, sloths, horses), or where we part company and give lamentable rein to the beast within. The poems are scored by oppositions and fault-lines: between youth and age, ancients and moderns, monsters and underdogs, and - ultimately and inevitably - nations. Tyrannosaurus Rex versus The Corduroy Kid is Simon Armitage’s wittiest, most alertly combative and impassioned collection to date.