| Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921. |
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| V. The Town Down the River |
| 21. How Annandale Went Out |
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| “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: | 5 |
| An apparatus not for me to mend— | |
| A wreck, with hell between him and the end, | |
| Remained of Annandale; and I was there. | |
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| “I knew the ruin as I knew the man; | |
| So put the two together, if you can, | 10 |
| 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.” | |
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