The World's a Stage
The world's a theatre: age after age,Souls masked and muffled in their fleshly gearBefore the supreme audience appear,As Nature, God's own Art, appoints the stage.
Each plays the part that is his heritage;From choir to choir they pass, from sphere to sphere,And deck themselves with joy or sorry cheer,As Fate the comic playwright fills the page.
None do or suffer, be they cursed or blest,Aught otherwise than the great Wisdom wroteTo gladden each and all who gave Him mirth,
When we at last to sea or air or earthYielding these masks that weal or woe denote,In God shall see who spoke and acted best.
Words in this poem
- theatre n.
- An edifice in which dramatic performances or spectacles are exhibited for the amusement of spectators; anciently uncovered, except the stage, but in modern times roofed. [F. thé\'83tre, L. theatrum, Gr. dhya to meditate, think. Cf. Theory.]
- heritage a.
- That which is inherited, or passes from heir to heir; inheritance. [OE. heritage, eritage, OF. heritage, eritage, F. héritage, fr. hériter to inherit, LL. heriditare. See Hereditable.]
- playwright n.
- A maker or adapter of plays.
- cursed a.
- Deserving a curse; execrable; hateful; detestable; abominable.
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- wrote v. i.
- To root with the snout. See 1st Root. [OE. wroten. See 1st Root.]
- gladden v. t.
- To make glad; to cheer; to please; to gratify; to rejoice; to exhilarate. [See Glad, v. t.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The World's a Stage is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti and Tommaso Campanella, Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, the John Addington Symonds translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Tommaso Campanella, The World's a Stage, in Sonnets (1878), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #10314, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/campanella-sonnets/the-world-s-a-stage.html, id L27814.
Form and metre
The World's a Stage is 14 lines in 4 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABBA, complete in 2 of its 4 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 89%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBA ageA · gearB · appearB · stageA
- 2 ABBA heritageA · sphereB · cheerB · pageA
- 3 CDE blestC · wroteD · mirthE
- 4 EDC earthE · denoteD · bestC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The world's a theatre: age after age, | 10 | ···/˘˘···· |
| Souls masked and muffled in their fleshly gear | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Before the supreme audience appear, | 10 | ···˘//˘˘˘/ |
| As Nature, God's own Art, appoints the stage. | 10 | ·/˘···˘/·· |
| Each plays the part that is his heritage; | 10 | ·······/˘˘ |
| From choir to choir they pass, from sphere to sphere, | 10 | ·/·/······ |
| And deck themselves with joy or sorry cheer, | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| As Fate the comic playwright fills the page. | 10 | ···/˘/···· |
| None do or suffer, be they cursed or blest, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Aught otherwise than the great Wisdom wrote | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| To gladden each and all who gave Him mirth, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| When we at last to sea or air or earth | 10 | ·········· |
| Yielding these masks that weal or woe denote, | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| In God shall see who spoke and acted best. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.