Whenever veteran's day (Remembrance day elsewhere) comes around, I cannot help but think of this poem. I'm just going to leave it here for you.
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.
(contrary to the use in the movie, Housman was using "Mercenaries" ironically, describing the professional soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force in WW1)
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