An anthem is a song or hymn of praise. The appearance of the word in the title of this poem is ironic. The subjects of the poem—the “youth”—are “doomed” to die. There is nothing to praise or celebrate in this antiwar poem, which rejects religious and patriotic sentiment that would support and glorify the war. The poem can also be understood as a lament (an expression of grief) or an elegy (a mourning of the dead).

In Line 1, “passing-bells” refers to bells that are rung to announce a death or a funeral. There will be no such bells on the front to commemorate the men who are slaughtered like “cattle” (Line 1). They die in vast numbers, cut down by the modern machinery of war, in a way that undermines their humanity, their intrinsic worth. Lines 2-4 maintain the picture of the mayhem created by modern war and consist of a grim, ironic metaphor. The sounds of the guns and rifles, which are presented in language resembling the sounds it denotes (a literary device known as onomatopoeia) make up all the bells or “orisons” (prayers) (Line 4), the men will receive. The staccato sound of machine-gun fire is thus the grotesque prayer offered up to heaven.