“SOME DEEM IT BUT A LITTLE THING.”

SOME deem it but a little thing
To trifle with another’s love;
To gain the heart’s best offering,
And then to other objects rove:
But it has caused full many a smart,
Which years alone can e’er allay,
And broken many a faithful heart,
Which might have thrilled with love to-day.

Some deem it but a little thing
To pass their humble brother by,
Nor deign to yield the joys that spring
From outstretch’d hand and friendly eye:
But it has caused, this little deed,
Full many a scalding tear to roll,
And many an aching heart to bleed,
And untold anguish of the soul.

Some deem it but a little thing
To sever Friendship’s sacred chord,
And rudely snap the ties that cling
Around the heart, by some false word:
But it has caused a world of strife,
Where love and peace were wont to reign;
And many a year of after life
Made doubly desolate by pain.

O ye who heretofore have deem’d
These trivial things as nothing wrong,
And by your daily acts have seem’d
Regardless of the human throng;
Take heed how ye in future deal,
Nor rudely strike Affection’s strings,
For wounds which Time can never heal
Have sprung from such like little things.

Some Deem it but a little thing by C. Mortimer Wiske - 1878