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 earth’s foundations stay

what God abandoned, these defended

and saved the sum of things for pay

- A. E. Housman, “Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries”, the first and only poem I ever memorized, off an AP Euro History primary sources supplement where it was contextualized as a response to Central Powers boasting of their universal-draft troops advancing against the professional British Army

It’s 8 lines, but they live intertwined