Demetria was written before the author was sufficiently
practised, to express his thoughts in verse
with simplicity; though not before the heart has
usually taken in a tolerable freight of the passions
to which it relates. Its imperfections were soon
apparent, and it was laid aside for revision; but,
other themes and other affairs engaging his attention,
it was left untouched till the summer of 1837.
Having at that time reached a piece of level ground
in the journey of life, and feeling an impulse to an
old amusement, the task of re-writing this Tragedy,
several times meditated and postponed, was taken
in hand. A pleasure attended the labor, perhaps
equal to that of inventing new scenes. For, when
the writer, after an interval of twenty-six years,
found himself employed, once more, over its remembered
pages, an illusion restored, as it were, life's
early fragrance, brought back the lumen purpureum,
seldom adequately prized till its tint begins to fade.
The structure and complexion of the original have
been studiously preserved. The reader will not fail
to perceive that it was not the design to produce
a stately poem, but a domestic Tragedy as simple
in diction as in plan.
