1. FIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN
- EDWIN BROCK

2. EDWIN BROCK 1927-1997 British poet
He had no literary aspirations. He just completed his formal school education.
His poems have a very matter-of-fact way of expression. Very factual.
Traumatic experience of marital conflict permeated his poetry

3. FIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN Written in 1972
Mocks at the dehumanization of man
Describes the various ways of killing that man has used from the 1st to the 20th century
It is a satire on progress and civilization
Explores human cruelty
Human progress has just been reduced to progress in terms of techniques of killing
Insensitiveness and lack of virtues in modern times

4. 1st STANZA
There are many cumbersome ways to kill a man. 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

5. Meaning……… Crucifixion as a method of killing
Biblical allusion- Jesus Christ
Golgotha
Crowd of people witnessing the crucifixion
‘cock that crows’- St Peter denied knowing him thrice. Jesus predicted the same.
St Peter was a disciple of Jesus
Sponge dipped in vinegar increases thirst

6. 2nd STANZA
Or you can take a length of steel, shaped and chased in a traditional way, and attempt to pierce the metal cage he wears. 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.

7. MEANING……. Medieval ages and their ways of killing
Wars were fought for crown and honour
“length of steel”- metal weapons
“metal cage”- armour
Reference to the Wars of Roses ( )
- series of dynastic wars fought between House of Lancaster and House of York (England)

8. 3rd STANZA
Dispensing with nobility, you may, if the wind allows, blow gas at him. But then you need 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

9. MEANING……….. Reference to World War 1 Favourable wind conditions
Poisonous gas warfare used by the British on the Germans in 1915 (plan backfired)
Horrors of World War, mud-blackened boots, plagues, starvation, miserable living conditions
Patriotic songs to boost the morale

10. 4th STANZA
In an age of aeroplanes, you may fly miles above your victim and dispose of him by pressing one small switch. All you then require is an ocean to separate you, two systems of government, a nation's scientists, several factories, a psychopath and land that no-one needs for several years

11. MEANING…….. Emergence of the aeroplane and the atomic bomb
Reference to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in Japan by USA (2nd World War)
“ocean to separate”- cultural gap
“factories”- produce lethal weapons (atomic bombs)
“psychopath”- Harry S. Truman (then US Pres)

12. 5th STANZA
These are, as I began, cumbersome ways to kill a man. Simpler, direct, and much more neat is to see that he is living somewhere in the middle of the twentieth century, and leave him there

13. MEANING…….. Previous methods are all too cumbersome
Easiest method- leave someone in the middle of 20th century
Reference to the post 2nd World War world conditions
Poverty, malnutrition, hunger, unemployment
Dying every minute
Existing and not living

14. RESPONSES…….