Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

In the days of yore, I used to post poems occasionally, and I think I ought to do it again, at least occasionally. Everyone’s day is better for a little poetry in it, right?

Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries
By A. E. 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.