The poem begins with a group of dead from the graveyard addressing the living telling them that they shook their coffins and made them believe it was Judgement Day when they took their guns ready for war. The second stanza presents images of other living beings being disturbed as well, hounds, mice, and worms.
The poem continues with God addressing the disturbed dead, telling them that it is not Judgement Day and that things are the same as they used to be when they were alive. God’s address continues in the following stanzas. He describes the living’s desire to make the red war redder, fighting for Christ, unaware that their efforts are useless. They would if it were Judgement Day end up in Hell for threatening. God concludes by saying that it would be worse (“warmer”) when he blows the trumpet, but he is doubtful whether he ever would because humanity needs eternal rest.
The next two stanzas are told from the perspective of the dead again. They wonder whether the world will ever come to sanity, and one preacher comments how he wishes he stuck to smoking and drinking instead of preaching because it was useless. The poem concludes with the noise of the guns, disturbing the hour in humanity’s effort to protect and avenge.
