]> Demon and Beast An electronic edition William Butler Yeats Electronic edition compiled and proof-read by Beatrix Färber School of History, University College, Cork First draft. 916 CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork
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The works by W. B. Yeats are in the public domain. This electronic text is available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of private or academic research and teaching.

 Written on 23 November 1918; first published in the Dial in November 1920 (A. Norman Jeffares, p. 235). Literature (a small selection) W. B. Yeats, The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats, consisting of Reveries over childhood and youth, The trembling of the veil, and Dramatis personae (New York 1938). Richard Ellmann, Yeats: The Man and the Masks. Corrected edition with a new preface (Oxford 1979). [First published New York 1948; reprinted London 1961.] Peter Ure, 'Yeats's 'Demon and Beast', Irish Writing 31 (Summer 1955) 42–50. Peter Allt and Russell K. Alspach, The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W.B. Yeats (New York: Macmillan 1957). W. B. Yeats, Essays and Introductions (New York: Macmillan 1961). W. B. Yeats, Explorations: selected by Mrs W. B. Yeats (London/New York: Macmillan 1962). Richard Ellmann, The Identity of Yeats (New York 1964). Paul Cohen, 'Yeats as Portraitist', Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 5/2 (Decmber 1979), 31–37. A. Norman Jeffares, A New Commentary on the Poems of W.B. Yeats (Stanford 1984). Seamus Deane, ''The Second Coming': Coming Second; Coming in a Second', Irish University Review, 22/1 (Spring/Summer 1992) 92–100. A general bibliography is available online at the official web site of the Nobel Prize. See: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bibl.html The edition used in the digital edition William Butler Yeats Demon and Beast Richard J. Finneran The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats Macmillan Press London 1991 188–189

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 23 November 1918 The poem is in English. literary poetry W. B. Yeats 20c 2014-02-13 Beatrix Färber ed. File parsed and validated; SGML and HTML files created. 2014-04-30 Beatrix Färber ed. Structural markup applied according to CELT practice; TEI header created with bibliographical detail. 1996 Students at the CELT Project, UCC ed. First proofing. 1996 Donnchadh Ó Corráin data capture Text captured Demon and Beast For certain minutes at the least That crafty demon and that loud beast That plague me day and night Ran out of my sight; Though I had long perned in the gyre, Between my hatred and desire. I saw my freedom won And all laugh in the sun. The glittering eyes in a death's head Of old Luke Wadding's portrait said Welcome, and the Ormondes all Nodded upon the wall, And even Strafford smiled as though It made him happier to know I understood his plan. Now that the loud beast ran There was no portrait in the Gallery But beckoned to sweet company, For all men's thoughts grew clear Being dear as mine are dear. But soon a tear-drop started up, For aimless joy had made me stop Beside the little lake To watch a white gull take A bit of bread thrown up into the air; Now gyring down and perning there He splashed where an absurd Portly green-pated bird Shook off the water from his back; Being no more demoniac A stupid happy creature Could rouse my whole nature. Yet I am certain as can be That every natural victory Belongs to beast or demon, That never yet had freeman Right mastery of natural things, And that mere growing old, that brings Chilled blood, this sweetness brought; Yet have no dearer thought Than that I may find out a way To make it linger half a day. O what a sweetness strayed Through barren Thebaid, Or by the Mareotic sea When that exultant Anthony And twice a thousand more Starved upon the shore And withered to a bag of bones! What had the Caesars but their thrones?