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. 17. Bells in Tower at Evening Toll
2. More Poems. 22. Ho, Everyone that Tthirsteth
3. More Poems. 9. When Green Buds Hang in the Elm Like Dust
4. Additional Poems. 2. Oh Were He and I Together
5. More Poems. 25. Yon Flakes that Fret the Eastern Sky

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