FIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN

-Edwin Brock
Five Ways to Kill a Man by Edwin Brock mocks at the dehumanization of man. The
poem is written in a simple language to describe the different ways to kill a man.
The words are used cold and blunt.
The main theme of the poem is the loss of humanity in mankind with every passing
era. Man has a natural instinct to fight, kill and to destroy. The poem describes the
various ways man has devised since ancient times to take lives of his fellow human
beings for his own selfish motives.
Each stanza of the poem deals with one
killing method of man that is inflicted on the other. The very first stanza of the
poem, Five Ways to Kill a Man begins with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. A whole
crowd walks up a hill as they force him to carry the cross upon his back. Jesus was
nailed to the cross and the cross was then pulled erect. Later on, Christ was asked
to remove his cloak, so that he would not be able to have a proper burial and his
corpse would be left on top of the hill semi-clad. Christ was tortured in many ways.
When Christ asked for water, they gave him sponge soaked in vinegar tied to a rod
which they put into his mouth. Eventually, Jesus died and they waited there and
watched him die.
The first stanza has dark
undertones of sarcasm in it. The method used to torture him and kill him are termed
as cumbersome by the poet. The sheer lack of humanity on the part of the crowd
which watches a man brutally crucified is portrayed in the first stanza.

You can make him carry a plank of wood

to the top of a hill and nail him to it. To do this
properly you require a crowd of people
wearing sandals, a cock that crows, a cloak
to dissect, a sponge, some vinegar and one
man to hammer the nails home

The second stanza moves to the medieval age. There, the knights foolishly
slaughtered each other with hook axes and hammers which could pierce the armor
with ease. They rode and faced the opponents on white horses, attacking them with
swords, ready to kill or to be killed. Similarly, crowns used to go on conquering
sprees, fighting huge wars to annex small kingdoms. Two countries would go to war
and thousands o f people would die on both sides, before one prince would emerge
as victorious. Then the prince would throw a banquet, celebrating his victory and
the deaths of the numerous people he killed.
 But for this you need white horses,
English trees, men with bows and arrows,
at least two flags, a prince, and a
castle to hold your banquet in.

The poet then moves on to the topic of World Wars in which it was lot easier to kill
due to the advent of science. The use of atomic bombs which can kill millions and
millions of people just with the touch of a button. . In 1915, the British used gas
cylinders on the Germans. The poet then refers to the bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in Japan by the USA during the Second World War.

a mile of mud sliced through with ditches,

not to mention black boots, bomb craters,
more mud, a plague of rats, a dozen songs
and some round hats made of steel.

This horrible act of mass killing was executed by a psychopath possibly referring to
the then President of the USA, Harry S. Truman who authorized the bombing on
Japan. Land that no one needs for several years is a reference to regions of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which were completely destroyed by the effects of
radiation. In the final stanza, the poet argues that there is no need to adopt
cumbersome ways of killing men in the 20th century. This era is already infested
with diseases, destitution, accidents, wars and hatred which is enough to kill a
person.

Through Five Ways to Kill a Man, Edwin Brock

conveys the message of how man dehumanizes himself as he progresses. Man has
made life comfortable by inventing more and more scientific technology, at the
same time; he is also acquiring new methods to make killing more easier. Every
single day children die of diseases, malnutrition; people become victims of
joblessness, poverty, hunger and religious conflicts. Thus, the poem highlights the
fact that man changes with time and his reasons for his killing too.