Hello Rachael:

 I looked at the poem, and it makes for a very encouraging lesson.

  Forgive me, but I am also reminded of the "Judge Smails"   verse  in   the comedy movie, "Caddyshack".

Judge Smails:

" It's easy to grin When your ship comes in

 And you've got the stock market beat

 But the man worthwhile

 Is the man who can smile

 When his shorts

 are too tight in the seat"-----"Caddyshack"

Actually Bruce's poem sounds like a parody of "The Man Worth While," by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919), a very popular inspirational poet:

"The Man Worth While"

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.

Very cute, that poem could be a companion piece to compare and contrast!