The narrator
The narrator of "Channel Firing" is one of the dead people lying in the graveyard of the local church. They are awoken from their eternal sleep by the sound of the channel firing, the practice of firing cannons across the English Channel as a display of military might. At the beginning of the poem, the narrator uses the first-person plural "we" to describe the events of the poem, speaking on behalf of all the dead in the graveyard.
God
God speaks from stanza 3 to stanza 6 of "Channel Firing," offering his perspective on the events taking place. He is depicted as knowing more about the world than the dead, but not necessarily as all-powerful or all-knowing. God's tone is cynical and ironic, and he even uses a cliché to express his doubts about the fate of the world. Despite being the creator of the world, God seems uncertain about whether the end of the world will ever come.
An unidentified dead person
This dead person speaks after God, expressing their doubts about whether the world will ever become "sane" again. They wonder if the world will ever be less insane than the "indifferent," or cruelly uncaring, century in which they died. This person's tone is one of despair, as they seem to have lost hope for the future of the world.
Parson Thirdly
Parson Thirdly is a country priest who speaks after God, expressing his own doubts about the value of his life's work in the face of the apparent chaos of the world. Parson Thirdly wonders if he should have devoted his time to more earthly pleasures, such as smoking tobacco and drinking beer, instead of dedicating himself to religion. His tone is one of resignation, as he seems to have lost faith in the power of religion to bring meaning to the world.
