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.”