Subtitled "A Ragtime Two-Step," this item followed close upon the completion of The Entertainer, and is very much an echo of that more famous piece, even inverting certain of its thematic phrases (without, admittedly, matching its melodic appeal).

The Strenuous Life—as usual, the title has no direct relation to the music—follows the common repeat pattern of both rags and marches, a series of 16-bar choruses (A-A-B-B-A-C-C-D-D), with the central A section being a trio that here is both teasing and delicate. The bass line in the C chorus is particularly inventive, and the dense chords in the final section—previewed in the very first bars—bring richness to what by Joplin's high early period standards might otherwise be a rather formulaic rag.

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