{
 "id": "w-b-yeats/demon-and-beast",
 "title": "Demon and Beast",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "W. B. Yeats",
 "poet_slug": "w-b-yeats",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Michael Robartes and the Dancer",
 "book_slug": "michael-robartes-and-the-dancer",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 8,
 "container": "Michael Robartes and the Dancer",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1920,
  "venue": "Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1920)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/robertes00wby"
  ]
 },
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49609",
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   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Dublin_University_Review/TFAwAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.ie/books/edition/The_Irish_Monthly/EMoaAAAAYAAJ",
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  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-21"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 50,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "For certain minutes at the least",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That crafty demon and that loud beast",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That plague me day and night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ran out of my sight;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though I had long pernned in the gyre,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between my hatred and desire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I saw my freedom won",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And all laugh in the sun.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The glittering eyes in a death’s head",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of old Luke Wadding’s portrait said",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Welcome, and the Ormonds all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nodded upon the wall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And even Stafford smiled as though",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It made him happier to know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I understood his plan.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now that the loud beast ran",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There was no portrait in the Gallery",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But beckoned to sweet company,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For all men’s thoughts grew clear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being dear as mine are dear.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But soon a tear-drop started up",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For aimless joy had made me stop",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beside the little lake",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To watch a white gull take",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A bit of bread thrown up into the air;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now gyring down and pernning there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He splashed where an absurd",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Portly green-pated bird",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shook off the water from his back;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Being no more demoniac",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A stupid happy creature",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Could rouse my whole nature.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yet I am certain as can be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That every natural victory",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Belongs to beast or demon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That never yet had freeman",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Right mastery of natural things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And that mere growing old, that brings",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chilled blood, this sweetness brought;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yet have no dearer thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than that I may find out a way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make it linger half a day.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O what a sweetness strayed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through barren Thebaid,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or by the Mareotic sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When that exultant Anthony",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And twice a thousand more",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Starved upon the shore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And withered to a bag of bones:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What had the Caesars but their thrones?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}