

#Demon and Beast


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#### Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition


### Background details and bibliographic information


Demon and Beast
===============


Author: William Butler Yeats
----------------------------


### File Description

Electronic edition compiled and proof-read by Beatrix Färber

Funded by School of History, University College, Cork 1. First draft.Extent of text: 
916 words
#### Publication


CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork  
College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt

 (2014) Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.  
Text ID Number: E910001-064Availability [RESTRICTED] 
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.


#### Notes

Written on 23 November 1918; first published in the *Dial* in November 1920 (A. Norman Jeffares, p. 235).

#### Sources


**Literature (a small selection)**2. 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).
3. Richard Ellmann, Yeats: The Man and the Masks. Corrected edition with a new preface (Oxford 1979). [First published New York 1948; reprinted London 1961.]
4. Peter Ure, 'Yeats's 'Demon and Beast', Irish Writing 31 (Summer 1955) 42–50.
5. Peter Allt and Russell K. Alspach, The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W.B. Yeats (New York: Macmillan 1957).
6. W. B. Yeats, Essays and Introductions (New York: Macmillan 1961).
7. W. B. Yeats, Explorations: selected by Mrs W. B. Yeats (London/New York: Macmillan 1962).
8. Richard Ellmann, The Identity of Yeats (New York 1964).
9. Paul Cohen, 'Yeats as Portraitist', Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 5/2 (Decmber 1979), 31–37.
10. A. Norman Jeffares, A New Commentary on the Poems of W.B. Yeats (Stanford 1984).
11. Seamus Deane, ''The Second Coming': Coming Second; Coming in a Second', Irish University Review, 22/1 (Spring/Summer 1992) 92–100.
12. 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**2. William Butler Yeats Demon and Beast in , Ed. Richard J. Finneran The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. Macmillan Press, London, (1991) pages 188–189

### Encoding


#### Project Description


CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts


#### Sampling Declaration


The whole poem.


#### Editorial Declaration


##### Correction


The text has been proof-read twice.


##### Normalization


The electronic text represents the edited text.


##### Hyphenation


The editorial practice of the hard-copy editor has been retained.


##### Segmentation


div0= the individual poem, stanzas are marked lg.


##### Interpretation


Names of persons (given names), and places are not tagged. Terms for cultural and social roles are not tagged.


### Profile Description


Created: 
 (23 November 1918) #### Use of language


##### Language: [EN] The poem is in English.


### Revision History


* (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




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#### Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: E910001-064


### Demon and Beast: Author: William Butler Yeats




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p.188


1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.


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p.189

6. 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.
7. 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?










