War
The poem was written before the First World War, and it criticizes the ideology and effects of war. It opens up with the noise of war so loud that it disturbed the dead in their coffins. The dead have a discussion among themselves about the war, the uselessness of it and the never-changing humanity. Even God addresses the dead, reassuring them that it is, in fact, not the Judgement Day, but the usual behavior of the living that disturbed them.
The damnation of humanity
Humans in war are presented as bloodthirsty, eager to make “red war redder yet”. There is no hope for humanity, which always finds reason for war, bloodshed and destruction. Even God in the poem condemns humans that never learn from their mistakes, that use religion as an excuse for war, unaware that they would end up in Hell for their efforts. He even goes as far to comment that He might never give them Judgement Day because humanity is in grave need for eternal rest, meaning that it deserves eternal damnation.
History
The poem also explores the theme of history, in the sense that history repeats itself throughout. The dead wonder if the world would ever be saner, if it will ever change or if the history will always repeat itself in the form of war and destruction of each other. Humanity tends to find reasons for killing each other throughout the history, and the ending attests to that with the mention of historical sights that witnessed this same destruction and were the excuse for it.
