Poem by Alfred Edward Housman

Last Poems. 37. Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

These, in the days when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth's foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and the earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.

1. More Poems. 33. On Forelands High in Heaven
2. A Shropshire Lad. 56. The Day of Battle
3. Last Poems. 13. The Deserter
4. More Poems. 17. Bells in Tower at Evening Toll
5. Last Poems. 39. When Summer’s End Is Nighing

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