We thought it was the Judgment-day
The poem utilizes religious allegories and connotations to address modern warfare and its implications. The noises from the naval gunnery practice are described as loud enough to shake and awaken the dead. The speaker as one of the deceased buried before the turn of the twentieth century is awakened from his eternal rest. Consequently the dead conclude that the end is nigh and the apocalypse has befallen humanity. The poem takes an ironic tone when God responds to the dead by assuring that it is not Judgment Day. Therefore the quote highlights the magnitude of modern warfare that prompts fear of an apocalypse.
“All nations striving strong to make
Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters
God retorts to the queries of the dead while scrutinizing history, human behavior, and warfare. He declares the cycle of violence and war that has plagued humanity since the beginning of time. Though human civilizations experience carnage and destruction in conflicts they still push the boundaries of warfare. The poem expresses the futility of war particularly modern warfare where bloodshed and devastation are immense. Therefore God criticizes the nature of man in justifying their savagery against each other on the basis of religion.
So down we lay again. “I wonder,
Will the world ever saner be,”
Said one, “than when He sent us under
In our indifferent century!”
The poem delves into human history to scrutinize the recurrence of events and human behavior that proved counterproductive. The speaker died in a different century but has the opportunity to observe the present century. Therefore concludes that nothing changes about humanity except the possibility of them becoming worse. The speaker acknowledges the faults of his generation but notes that the current generation is not any better. He hopes that the world after the present century will be better and refrain from repeating the same mistakes.
