Three short lines, each like an old saying, but each one slightly off. The first sounds like friendly advice: grill a sea bass and enjoy it. It's a small, bodily pleasure, offered plainly. The second line is harsher. The "pater noster" is the Lord's Prayer in Latin, so yesterday there was prayer and today there is war. The poem doesn't explain how one turns into the other, and that gap is where the unease sits. It might suggest that faith and violence live uncomfortably close, or that people pray and then do terrible things anyway.
The last line pulls the first two together. "Vexed to eat, vexed to be" suggests that even basic acts, like eating or simply existing, come with worry or irritation. The speaker seems weary and a little wry. The mood moves from relaxed to bleak, as if the proverb-like voice can't keep up its calm. The sharp, clipped rhythm makes each line feel like a short verdict, leaving the reader with a tense, restless sense of how fragile ordinary comfort is.