poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

hi all.i thoroughly enjoyed this poem after reading it..1st time i read it without knowing the author's gender, i felt the poem was a sexist one and surely written by a sexist woman..after reading it the 2nd time(and knowing the author's gender), i realised that Brock was explaining the art of warfare and how people were inhumanely killed. it has got nothing to do with sexism but more of feelings expressed about what was happening at that time. i would have to disagree with those saying that the ending being too subtle..the ending was the best part in my point of view. it is about one's spirit dying and that, to me is worth than any physical death. a wonderful open..deserves a standing ovation!

I had to read this poem for literature project. And when i first read, this I tought how weird is this. But after you read it a couple of times you understand were Brock comes from. It is a wonderful poem.

a great poem with tons of different meanings. It goes through history adding the technology in order to futher dehumanis killing. It is a wonderful examination of the carefree, and demorilized civilization that america has become. Most Americans don't eiven realize the number of americans being killined in Baghdad right now.

Dear Kathy Plummer

You posted a comment about the effect that Edwin Brock's poem, 'Five Ways to Kill a Man', had on your view of the world - stating that the line '...and leave him there' was the most forceful in philosophical meaning. You believe that this refers to dying alone, yet I am led to believe that it is a means of defining man's inhumanity to themselves. It implies that man will destroy himself if you simply let him live, for there exists in each of us, the ability to cause our own self destruction. I believe this to be a play on the saying, 'Whatever someone else does to you, you are always capable of doing worse to yourself'. It refers to our own personal inhumanity rather than our social inhumanity - of all the weapons and technological advances that are utilised as instruments of destruction, man itself remains mankinds' greatest threat.

i agree the ending should be more explored but instead it leaves you so sudenly. its also great how Edwin makes the killing of every stanza more evolved and less physical. peace!

I teach this poem to eigth graders. We find so many parallels in our lives today. The children can really relate to this poem. We live in Karachi, Pakistan where living in fear of dying is the closest most people get to the meanign of life. I grew up in this city but did not wake up afraid to go to school because of the fear of bomb threats but these children I teach and my own children who go to the same school go through this terror every day. Brock is speaking of spiritual death and I think we all survive in today's world by trying not to think of those headlines that daily tell us how many were blown up in a blast in Iraq or how many died in earthquakes in Asia. We have to die in spirit as otherwise we would be paralysed by fear and too full of pain to live. What can we look forward to for our children. We have gone beyond Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If innocence died in WW 2 I think humanity died after 9/11 and that was a result of the sad truth that no one is listening and there is no justice in this world. I agree with char.

I have to agree wid alkaff on the ending part. b/c the ending ties everything up and it also hits on the world that we are living rite now.
throughout the poem, the methods of killing gets worse and worse until the last one. which really criticizes the time, atmosphere, basically wht we are living in.

The poem, "Five Ways to Kill a Man" by Edward Brock refers to humankind having suffered through the ages, from the classical ages to the Middle Ages, and from World War I to the Atomic and Cold War age. However, the poet suggests that perhaps the most crushing blow to humanity is the under- development of some nations, whose poverty and lack of technology have effectively left them in the previous century, creating such a great and painful schism in humanity that it is more devastating than any war.

it is a very good poem. i translated it into Arabic and some of those who read the translation said: then there is some really good modern English poetry.

Brilliant!!! How could you ask for more? It shows that although the people mentioned are physically dead, they shall remain alive forever in our memories, whereas us, who are "living" are morally dead because no one knows about us, no one knows who we are. We are only extras which no one shall ever bother to read about... we are dead in our life. That is what I understood.