Read the poem again and write an appreciation of the poem in a paragraph format (title, poet, rhyme scheme, favourite line, theme, figures of speech, special features, why I like/dislike the poem).

‘All the World’s a Stage’ is taken from the play ‘As You Like It’ written by William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatist of the English language, known as the ‘Bard of Avon’. The poem is written in Blank Verse: it has no rhyme scheme, but most lines have a steady rhythm of five beats. Its theme is that the world is a stage on which all men and women are actors; they enter at birth and exit at death, and every person plays seven roles in his life – the infant, the schoolboy, the lover, the soldier, the justice, the lean old pantaloon and finally second childishness. The whole poem is an extended metaphor. It also contains similes such as ‘creeping like snail’ and ‘sighing like furnace’, onomatopoeia in ‘mewling and puking’, transferred epithet in ‘woeful ballad’ and alliteration in ‘sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything’. Vivid imagery, gentle humour and a touch of sadness are its special features; the language is old but expressive. My favourite line is “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players”, because it sums up the whole of life in a single picture. I like the poem because it realistically describes the journey of life and reminds us that every stage passes, so we must play our part well.