The poem could be seen as being divided into two sections despite it being structured as a one stanza poem. The first part is concerned with Judgement day and the corresponding imagery and allusions. The second part is a more personal, relating to a one-person experience and relationship with God.
In the first part the speaker of the poem calls upon the angels to blow their trumpets to begin the Judgement Day and wake the souls of the dead to rise and return to their bodies and meet God. The phrase “earth’s imagin’d corners” is interesting because it relates to the map-making of the poet’s time when the maps were made with images of angels on all the four corners. The counting of the ways the people rising from the dead died, shows the speaker’s wish for inclusivity.
The second part of the poem shows and abrupt shift from impersonal to a personal tone. The speaker of the poem shifts the attention to his personal experience and relationship with God and need to repent for his sins. He asks of the God to teach him how to repent and says it is as good as if he’d sealed his pardon with his blood. This poem’s ending shows the author’s typical paradoxical ambiguity and the combination of metaphysical and physical.
