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Poem Alanysis Untuk Alen
Poem Alanysis Untuk Alen
William Shakespeare
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Historical Perspective
All The Worlds A Stage is a poem written by William Shakespeare. In fact, it was
not a poem earlier, but a monologue from the maestros As You Like It. This
monologue is said by Melancholy Jaques in Act II Scene VII. As the speech
begins, seven different stages of a mans life are all that can come into your mind.
Each and every word is so beautifully written that you can actually imagine
everything that is written, just like a movie running in front of your eyes.
The seven stages of a mans life also refer to The Seven Ages Of Man. These ages
are: infant, school going boy, lover/husband, soldier/fighter, justice/ability to
understand the right and wrong, Pantalone (greediness and high in status) and old-
age.
In this poem, Shakespeare has compared life with a stage. He has used different
words to beautify the poem in a wonderful way. He has taken this concept from
medieval philosophy, which showed glimpses of several different groups as the
seven deadly sins for theological reasons. Theology is the study of Gods nature
as well as religious belief.
All The Worlds A Stage Structure
There are two major poetic devices used in this poem simile and metaphor.
Simile examples in the poem: creeping like a snail; soldier bearded like the
pard; etc.
Metaphor examples in the poem: The entire poem itself is more like symbolism;
men and women are portrayed as players whereas life is portrayed as the stage.
Repetition is another figure of speech used in this poem; words like sans, age, etc.
are repeated.
The poet has used a narrative form to express his innermost emotions about how
he thinks that the world is a stage and all the people living in it are mere players or
characters. These characters go through seven different phases in their lives.
All The Worlds A Stage tells you that all the men and women are mere characters
in the drama, which is played on the stage (in the world). They have their exits
and their entrances; this means that all the people take birth and then die after a
certain period of time.
When the man enters into the world, he has seven different ages or phases to go
through. When he goes through these ages, he has to play different roles. These
roles depict a man as a son, his responsibilities as a brother, father, husband,
fighter for the nation, etc.
The man begins his act on the stage as an infant; he pukes in the arms of his nurse
and cries to be in the comfort of his mother.
The second act starts right when he turns into a school going boy, who is
unwilling to go to school and unwilling to take the responsibility of being a
student.
The third act , then comes when he turns into a lover; his lover is the only person
he sees dancing in front of his eyes. For him, there is absolutely no other place
that can comfort him, than the eyebrow of his lover.
The fourth act portrays the man as a soldier or a fight for the nation. His beard
depicts all those strange oaths that he takes to protect his country and all the men
and women living in it. No doubt he quarrels, but he also maintains his dignity to
create and develop his reputation in front of others around him. This is perhaps the
toughest stage in his life.
Then comes the fifth act, where he turns into justice, the one who knows what is
good and what is right. At this stage, he is perhaps the best person to approach to
find out who is correct and who is wrong.
The fifth stage comes into his life as he enters the stage of Pantalone, where he
has a high status in society, yet he is greedy for more. This stage does not remain
for long in his life.
Alas! The last stage comes for him to go through oblivion. No matter how hard he
tries to remember things, he is just not able to. When he enters old-age, he turns
into a child again. Slowly, he begins losing his teeth, his vision, the taste in his
mouth and the love or greed for everything that he once wanted in his life.
Personal Commentary
All The Worlds A Stage takes you to two stages melancholy and epiphany.
When you read about the second last and last stages of the mans life, you realize
that life is nothing, but mere play. All you need to do is take birth and leave, after
performing all your duties. Why do you need all the fame, name and money? Why
do you want to have everything in life, when you would have absolutely nothing
at all by the end of your play?
Personally, I feel that this poem also talks about the roles of other people in your
life. Just like you are playing your part, so are they! They enter into your lives to
teach you something new, and leave, gifting you a bunch of memories to dwell
upon.