How Annandale Went Out

“They called it Annandale—and I was there  

To flourish, to find words, and to attend:  

Liar, physician, hypocrite, and friend,  

I watched him; and the sight was not so fair  

As one or two that I have seen elsewhere:

An apparatus not for me to mend—  

A wreck, with hell between him and the end,  

Remained of Annandale; and I was there.  

“I knew the ruin as I knew the man;  

So put the two together, if you can,

Remembering the worst you know of me.  

Now view yourself as I was, on the spot—  

With a slight kind of engine. Do you see?  

Like this … You wouldn’t hang me? I thought not.”