Five Ways to Kill a Man Essay Example

kill a man in the 1st century, Brock moves on to the next time period. The poet says, “Or you can take a length of steel,/ shaped and chased in a traditional way,/ and attempt to pierce the metal cage he wears” (Brock, 8-10). The time period the poet is in now is the Middle Ages, and people killed each other using swords.

He uses the same technique in the first stanza to go on and tell us how to commit this act, “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” (Brock, 11-14). This is how people were during this time period, and Brock gave the reader an exceptional picture of what is was like. Brock continues going through time, and in his next stanza he talks about recently times events that have occurred. The poet still uses death as the main topic in the poem and he says, “Dispensing with nobility, you may, if the wind/ allows, blow gas at him. (Brock, 15-16).

This time Brock is talking about World War I, and gas was used at this time to kill a man. The person using gas to kill an enemy would have to make sure the wind is not coming back at them, ultimately because it would result in his death. Then, the poet describes the atmosphere of WWI and gives the reader a keen sense of what went on in the war. Brock says, “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” (Brock, 16-20).Once again, here is another way to kill a man according to Brock.

Ayers 3 The fourth stanza also happens to be about a war, except if we move through time one can see that Brock is using World War II to introduce a new way to kill a man. The poet states, “In the age of aeroplanes, you may fly/ miles about your victim and dispose of him by/ pressing one small switch. ” (Brock, 21-23). The poet means that it is even easier to kill a man by using airplanes and bombs.

The person doing this deed just has to press a button to kill a man.Brock uses humor and serious facts to go on, once again, and give the reader a detailed picture of how to achieve this act. He says, “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” (Brock 23-27). Brock uses constructive criticism in this stanza to joke about land and crazy people that are willing to kill people this way. In the final stanza of Brock’s poem, his message becomes more visible to the reader when he talks about how to kill a man in the current time period.

Brock begins to say, “Simpler, direct, and much more neat/ is to see that he lives somewhere in the middle/ of the twentieth century, and leave him there” (Brock, 29-31). One can see that death is bound to happen to everyone, and

as we pass through time we can see that killing a man is easier to do now then at the beginning of the 1st century. Another point that Brock may be trying to show his readers in this stanza is that is it better to leave a man alone now because in the end we will ultimately kill ourselves.Edwin Brock’s poem went through time and used historical events to show us all how to kill a man in five ways. He also used different poetry techniques to make it even clearer to the reader.

One of his favorite techniques in this poem is imagery and humor. It Ayers 4 gave a picture to the reader and helped him or her understand Brock’s point. His point was to explain five different ways to kill a man, and by going back in history he was able to show us that killing a man is becoming easier as time goes on. The poet did this very well, and he opened the eyes of many people by writing this poem.