All the World’s a Stage : Appreciation of Poem

Appreciation of Poem : All the World’s a Stage

All the World’s a Stage

  The poem ‘All the World’s a Stage’ is by William Shakespeare. It is taken from Shakespeare’s play ‘As you like it’. It is a monologue by one of the characters in the play.

  The poem is written in blank verse i.e. there is no rhyme scheme, but there is a steady rhythm of five beats in each line. There are many figures of speech, like Simile, Alliteration and Repetition, but the one that stands out is Metaphor. In the lines ‘All the world’s a stage, And all men and women are merely players’, there is an implied comparison between two different things.

  In this poem, Shakespeare compares life to a stage. He has divided life into seven stages, each having its own varied qualities and features. The theme of the poem is the cycle of life. It tells us how one starts out as an infant, helpless, without understanding, and ends the same way, without being aware of what is happening around him/her.