"Not Understood"

Not understood, we move along asunder,

Our paths grow wider as the seasons creep

Along the years. We marvel and we wonder,

Why life is life, and then we fall asleep,

Not understood.

Not understood, we gather false impressions,

And hug them closer as the years go by,

Till virtues often seem to us transgressions;

And thus men rise and fall and live and die,

Not understood.

Not understood, poor souls with stunted visions

Often measure giants by their narrow gauge;

The poisoned shafts of falsehood and derision

Are oft impelled 'gainst those who mould the age,

Not understood.

Not understood, the secret springs of action

Which lie beneath the surface and the show

Are disregarded; with self-satisfaction

We judge our neighbors, and they often go

Not understood.

Not understood, how trifles often change us—

The thoughtless sentence or the fancied slight—

Destroy long years of friendship and estrange us,

And on our souls there falls a freezing blight—

Not understood.

Not understood, how many hearts are aching

For lack of sympathy! Ah! day by day

How many cheerless, lonely hearts are breaking,

How many noble spirits pass away

Not understood.

O God! that men would see a little clearer,

Or judge less hardly when they cannot see!

O God! that men would draw a little nearer

To one another! They'd be nearer Thee,

And understood.