Epitaph On An Army Of Mercenaries

Alfred Edward Housman

These, in the day 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 earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay. 

Next 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : Far In A Western Brookland
• Alfred Edward Housman : Farewell To Barn And Stack And Tree
• Alfred Edward Housman : Fragment Of A Greek Tragedy
• Alfred Edward Housman : From Far, From Eve And Morning
• Alfred Edward Housman : Here Dead We Lie
• Alfred Edward Housman : Ho, Everyone That Thirsteth
• Alfred Edward Housman : Hughley Steeple
• Alfred Edward Housman : I Hoed And Trenched And Weeded
• Alfred Edward Housman : If By Chance Your Eye Offend You
• Alfred Edward Housman : If Truth In Hearts That Perish

Previous 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : Eight O'clock
• Alfred Edward Housman : Diffugere Nives ( Horace, Odes 4.7 )
• Alfred Edward Housman : Could Man Be Drunk Forever
• Alfred Edward Housman : Clunton And Clunbury
• Alfred Edward Housman : Bring, In This Timeless Grave To Throw
• Alfred Edward Housman : Bredon Hill
• Alfred Edward Housman : Be Still, My Soul, Be Still; The Arms You Bear Are Brittle
• Alfred Edward Housman : Be Still, My Soul, Be Still
• Alfred Edward Housman : As Through The Wild Green Hills Of Wyre
• Alfred Edward Housman : Along The Field As We Came By