The ills of all the human race,
The woes of earth that bring disgrace
Would banish, if we only could,
Escape the fiend, Misunderstood.

When Eve and Adam pure and good,
The law divine misunderstood,
A downward course was then begun,
A race that all the earth must run.

The thought is sad, indeed, though true,
That sinners reap in season due,
The fruits of all they sow, and should,
For down in hell they're understood.

The infidels of giant brain,
Would save themselves a deal of pain,
By claiming truth, if such they could,
But they alas! misunderstood.

The wars that devastate the land,
The reason men for wrong will stand,
They have somewhere in seeking good,
The law of right misunderstood.

In harshness do we estimate,
The neighbors oft we underrate,
The scene would change it nature could,
The monster bare, Misunderstood.

The Negro Problem of the times,
Which breeds the most atrocious crimes,
Survives, because in crushing good,
The Golden rule's misunderstood.

The Savior's work on earth was one,
Of building up where sin had run,
He gave to all the highest good,
But passed through life misunderstood.

We long to rest when time is o'er,
In that beyond for evermore,
The habitation of the good,
Above the fiend, Misunderstood.

Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/misunderstood-48/