Worth While

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1855 (Janesville) – 1919



It is easy enough to be pleasant,
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is one who will smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.

It is easy enough to be prudent,
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it's only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honor of earth
Is the one that resists desire.

By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world's highway is cumbered to-day;
They make up the sum of life.
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile,
It is these that are worth the homage on earth
For we find them but once in a while.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 06, 2023

53 sec read
149

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCBXXDX AEXEXFDF GHEHGCDC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 887
Words 177
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. more…

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