Five Ways to Kill a Man by Edwin Brock

Five Ways to Kill a Man by Edwin Brock

Five Ways to Kill a Man" by Edwin Brock is a satirical poem composed in free verse that mocks the dehumanisation of man. It focuses on the loss of humanity in man with every passing era. The poem describes in chronological order, the `many cumbersome ways' that man has used, to kill other human beings for his own selfish motives beginning from the ancient times to the twentieth century.

Referring to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the first stanza, Brock describes in a deliberately emotionless tone, the primitive, cruel way in which a man could be killed in the first century. He could be forced to carry a plank of wood to the top of a hill, just as Jesus was forced by a mob to carry one to Golgotha and then nailed to it. But to ensure that this manner of killing is conducted in the right way, what is needed is a crowd of people and `a cock that crows' just like the one that had crowed to remind Peter of Jesus's prediction that he would deny having known him, three times. What is also needed is ? cloak to dissect', just like the one that Christ had been asked to remove so that his corpse could be left on top of the hill, stripped of all dignity. Apart from a `man to hammer the nails home,' a sponge soaked in vinegar would also be needed to offer to the man being killed just as the one which was offered to Christ when he asked for water after being tortured in various ways.

The next way to kill a man that Brock speaks of with a deep undertone of sarcasm is that which was adopted in the medieval age when wars were fought for the sake of crown and honour and knights foolishly slaughtered one another using common agricultural tools which could pierce armour with ease. Referring to the Wars of Roses which were a series of dynastic wars fought from 1455 ? 1485 between the Houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England, Brock says that what one needs to adopt this different approach to kill a man is for opponents on royal white horses to attack one another with swords, or `bows and arrows' ready to kill or be killed ,each protected by a ridiculous `metal cage'. What Brock implies here is that in this futile game of jousting (fighting on horseback with lances), nothing is accomplished as one man is to end up losing his life and this will be celebrated by the other. Referring to kings or crowns going on conquering sprees and fighting prolonged wars to annex small kingdoms, Brock sarcastically says that what one needs to kill a man, or to kill several people is "two flags," a victorious prince, and "a castle to hold your banquet in" so that the deaths of people on both sides can be celebrated.

Brock then goes on to say that the ways adopted by princes and knights to kill a man could be dispensed with if one were to adopt the more advanced practices adopted in the First World War which was fought from 1914 to 1918. All that one needs is "if the wind allows", is to "blow gas" at one's enemy. Here, Brock refers to an incident in 1915 when the British used gas cylinders to attack the Germans. However, the direction of the wind changed and the gas blew right back at the British and poisoned them. The poet also refers to the horrors of trench

warfare and the ditches with appalling living conditions, "not to mention black boots, bomb craters, more mud" and "a plague of rats". Brock also refers to the false notions of war that were infused into young soldiers through war songs or chants to boost their morale and make them feel proud of killing the enemy.

Moving on a to an even more sophisticated way of killing a man and of dehumanising oneself even further, Brock refers to the Second World War which was fought from 1930 to 1945, particularly the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA in August 1945. He says that with the advent of the airplane and the atomic bomb, one may dispose of one's victim "by pressing one small switch" without even knowing or seeing him. In this context, Brock also refers to the cultural and ideological gap between America and Japan with their "two systems of government". Hence, to kill a man in such a way, what is needed is some scientists and many factories in which they can produce lethal weapons of mass destruction, and someone in authority like the U.S. President, Harry S.Truman whom Brock calls a `psychopath' for authorising the atomic bombing of Japan. Referring to the regions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which were totally devastated due to the effects of radiation, the poet suggests that all one will be left with is "land that no one needs for several years".

Dismissing all these cumbersome ways to kill a man, Brock states that the `simpler, direct and much more neat' way to kill a man is to leave him somewhere in the middle of the twentieth century. Here, the poet refers to the miserable and tragic conditions that were prevalent after the Second World War which included poverty, hunger, malnutrition, diseases, religious intolerance and joblessness. In such terrible conditions, a man will so desensitise and dehumanise himself everyday in order to survive that he will die a slow, painful death which will be the most cruel and torturous of all.

Hence one finds that each method described by Brock to kill a man further creates a distance between the killer and the victim until finally, there remains neither the killer nor the victim. What remains is only a living death.

The point that Brock attempts to drive home is that no matter what time or age it may be, man's natural instinct to fight, kill and destroy remains the same and to cater to this basic human tendency to hurt and to harm, man abuses science to constantly devise new sophisticated methods of killing and inflicting death and destruction on his fellow human beings with war being the ultimate horror that man inflicts on man.

Hence, by making a very strong statement in his poem on how the voice of humanity can be easily silenced, Brock urges mankind to speak up against its spiritual death and resurrect its dying humanity.

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