Author: j

TPS-FASTT HANDOUT

Title	The title could refer to the different generations, from youngest to oldest / The history of humankind in 7 stages / Reference to the stages of life that people experience / The seven personalities a man might have
Paraphrase	Paraphrased verbally in class
Speaker	Jacques; a character in “As You Like It” / He’s a bitter, pessimistic man and his attitude taints the tone of the poem overall / Get the sense that the speaker is someone who has spent a lot of time observing life and its cycle; wise?
Figurative Language	Similes and metaphors are dominant in this poem / Metaphor, lines 1-5: comparing men and women to actors, and life to a stage. OUR LIVES= 7 ACT PLAY. Our exits and entrances are our births and deaths. / Simile, line 8: creeping like snail, comparing a little boy to a snail; going VERY slowly to school, doesn’t want to / Simile, line 10: sighing like furnace, comparing the sighs of a passionate lover to the sounds of a breathing fire / Simile, line 12: bearded like the pard, comparing the young man’s beard to the whiskers of a leopard or panther / Metaphor, lines 14-15: bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth, comparing the reputation to a bubble; very fragile, easy to burst, built on nothing, and he doesn’t care, despite knowing that his reputation is nothing. / Imagery, lines 16-18: describing the justice; can easily visualize the success of this age; eats to indulgence, has experience, is wealthy, gives advice freely. / Metaphor, line 27: second childishness, comparing really old age to being a child again, dependent on others (diapers, feeding) / Line 28, repetition and alliteration: the repetition of the word sans emphasizes that at the end of our life, we are “without”, we are nothing. The repeated ssssss sound in the last line mimics the ultimate quieting of life as we head towards death.
Attitude (Tone!)	Topic: Growing old, Aging / Speaker’s attitude towards the topic is very negative, kind of mad about how much it sucks / Very brash and realistic about aging. Disdainful, brash, apprehensive
Shift	Lines 21-22, shift in end rhyme / Line 19, where the 6th and 7th age have no title and the previous ones did; this could translate to the idea that you are no longer important at this age; seen as useless, no value, literally and figuratively shrinking from this world / This shift contains the phrase “a world too wide”, signifying that the world is moving forward without you
Title	The number seven is symbolic; speaks to perfection, completion, fullness (attached to the story of creation) / The cycle of life; from nothing to nothing; the reality
Theme	Subject: Growing old, Aging, the Cycle of Life / Attitude: Negative but realistic at the same time / Message: As you age you will slowly come to fade from the world.