This summary outlines Shakespeare's famous poem "The Seven Ages of Man" from his play As You Like It. The poem describes the seven stages of a man's life from infancy to old age. It begins with the infant crying in the nurse's arms, then the whining schoolboy, the lover sighing for his mistress, the soldier seeking glory in battle, the justice in his prime, then the aging man as a pantaloon, and finally old age as a second childishness with the loss of senses.

1. OBJECTIVE:
Analyze literature as a
means of discovering the self.

2. THE SEVEN AGES OF MAN
(An excerpt from the famous play
“As You Like It”)
By: William Shakespeare

3. All the world’s a stage
And all the men and women are merely
players
They have their exits and entrances
And one man in his time plays many parts

4. His acts being seven ages. At first the
infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

5. And then the whining schoolboy, with his
satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like a
snail
Unwilling to school.

6. And then the lover
Sighing like a furnace with a woeful ballad
Made to mistress’ eyebrow

7. Then a soldier
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like a
pard
Jealous in honor, sudden quick in quarrel
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the canon’s mouth

8. And then the justice
In fair round belly with good capon lined
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut
Full of wise saws and modern instances
And so he plays his part.

9. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on
side
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too
wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly
voice
Turning again toward childish treble
pipes

10. Last scene of all
That ends this strange eventful history
Is second childishness and mere oblivion
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans
everything.