The poet narrates the seven ages of life by comparing the world to a stage and each one of us to actors playing an individual role on that stage of life. Our entrance is our birth, and our exit is our death. In a lifetime, each one of us plays many parts, and each part is compared to an act in a play. The first stage is that of an infant who cries, vomiting on the nurse’s arms. In the second stage, as a schoolboy, he drags himself unwillingly to school. In the third stage, man, as a lover, sighs in separation and writes poems about his beloved’s beauty. As a soldier, in the fourth stage, he is ready to take strange oaths. The poet compares him to a fierce leopard who is jealous of others’ honour and is very quick to quarrel. He is ready to risk his life for a short-lived reputation by jumping in front of a cannon. The fifth stage is the justice stage, well-fed with chicken. His appearance is formal, and he looks mature. He uses wise sayings, proverbs, and examples from the modern age. This is where he has reached middle age and gained maturity. Old age is the sixth stage of a man’s life, where he wears pantaloons and slippers on his feet. He is now thin, lean, and weak, and his eyesight too has become weak. His manly voice has turned into the shrill voice of a child. When he speaks, it appears as if he were playing a pipe or as if he were whistling (due to gaps in his teeth, some of which have fallen out). The last stage of a man’s life is dotage. In this stage, he is a bit senile, completely dependent on others, and helpless like a child, as he is now nearing death. This is the stage of second childhood, and like a child, at this stage a man needs help with everything. He loses his teeth, eye sight, and taste, and he becomes forgetful. This completes his part in the play of life, as after this he leaves the stage, or in other words, he dies.