In the poem of “Life is Truly Like a Stage” by Matthew Jenkins, people are truly shown what it would be like if our lives were basically to be shown to everyone. It asks us a few different things in ways of sly, undertone questions and sentences that are supposed to remind ourselves about our own mishaps in life. It poses questions as basic as if we made a big enough impact on people’s lives if anyone would care if we died. Also, much of the poem is about uniting and loving one another and seeing the impact on people’s lives. Furthermore it is to see how those choices of loving one another; instead of people hating one another impacts people’s lives. In a literal sense of this poem, the narrator sounds as if he has loved someone but waited to long to confess his love and so he lost his chance with the person of his or her dreams. Though, in a metaphorical sense it seems the poem is about somebody who just wants everyone to get along and to not miss any chances to tell people that you care for them no matter if they are black, white, green, orange, or purple.
This poem reminds me of all the lost opportunities I have had to make a significant difference in someone’s life or peoples lives and not followed through with it. It reminds me of how bad I can screw up and still things somehow turn out okay. Like the second line of the poem “Would people watch us as we cry…” I sat in my chair in my room tonight crying because of some of the stupid mistakes I have made that have come back to haunt me (Life is Truly Like a Stage, line 2). This poem also resembles my life like when my “love” life is going well and I have a girlfriend that I really care about it feels like she is my “queen” and that we have “undying love” whether that is true or not, in fact (Life is Truly Like a Stage, line 16).
Track 1- Literal Level of Poem Track 2- Personal Associations Track 3- Theme Track 4- Other Associations Track 5- Figurative Language Judgment Track 6- Time period of poem Track 7- Shifts
The theme of the poem “Life is Truly Like a Stage” is to not miss out on opportunities in life and to show people how much you truly care about them even if it is hard at the time. This is shown throughout the poem with lines talking about joining together and loving each other. If you tell people how much you truly care about them while you have the opportunity, then if something extremely bad like that person dying or becoming very badly sick comes about, at least you will have no regrets of your feelings, and they have found out that someone cares about them. Most of the lines in this poem do not directly incorporate this idea, but the lines do show it in hidden ways with questions and metaphors. It all comes together at the end though when he says that his “love for you came too late” (Life is Truly Like a Stage, last line). This means that the narrator missed out on his or her opportunity to show someone his love for that person and he truly regrets it. This is also shown throughout the poem though by saying that “If [he] had one thing to give….Would people know for your love I’d jump a cliff? (Life Is Truly Like a Stage ,line 26)” This previous sentence basically means that he wants to show his love, but he can not due to current situations. So the moral or theme of the poem is to love and let it show with no regrets. Don’t hold back your love and care for one another.
Track 1- Literal Level of Poem Track 2- Personal Associations Track 3- Theme Track 4- Other Associations Track 5- Figurative Language Judgment Track 6- Time period of poem Track 7- Shifts
“Life Is Truly Like a Stage” has a couple of other literary associations to go along with this great poem. The poem might not be well-known, but it is still a great piece of literature. This poem by Matthew Jenkins, who is not a very well-known poet, is associated with a very famous poet named William Shakespeare, whom had a poem sort of like this but it is called “All the World’s a Stage”. The only parts of these two poems that are truly associated with each other are the titles and the first few lines of each poem. Both poems have the last word of their title as “stage” and both poems also start their opening lines very similarly. In Matthew Jenkins’s “Life Is Truly Like a Stage”, it starts with the verse “If we filmed all our lives…” and William Shakespeare’s “All the World’s a Stage” starts off with “All the world’s a stage, And the men and women are merely players;…” which both are referring to people’s lives being seen by other people (Life Is Truly Like a Stage, line 1; All the World’s a Stage, line 1&2). Both of these poems, in complete different time periods, are referring to how life is acted out by people and how it is seen from afar by other people in those first few lines of the poem.
In the poem “Life Is Truly Like a Stage” there are many of different types of figurative language used. Similes, anaphors, alliterations, parallelism, and metaphors are just a few of the elements of figurative language that are used in this poem by Matthew Jenkins. There is also a wonderful rhyme scheme, and there is also an extended metaphor throughout the entire poem. A lot of this poem is repetitive meaning that it says the same thing over and over again in different lines. The author of the poem probably has used this technique to show the reader a unique point he has in mind. That point is the theme. That is why Mr. Jenkins uses so many similes to make a point through a comparison, which is a very useful technique. The anaphors and parallelism that he uses are also used to help make his point. His rhyme scheme follows the pattern of AAAA, BBBB, CCCC, DDDD, EEEE, FFFF, GGGG. Furthermore, the extended metaphor used in this poem compares people’s lives to a stage or show where other “outside people” can watch every decision and move we make. The comparison is made to show people to not be so cooped up in their own little world and to show love to all people no matter how diverse and different they are; continuing that point, the comparison is also made to show people to go out and live life and not to hold back their feelings to people, because you may never get the chance to tell someone how much you care about them ever again. Those techniques, metaphors, extended metaphors, similes, anaphors, alliterations, and parallelism are all literary devices that Matthew Jenkins uses in “Life Is Truly Like a Stage” to show his point of view and the theme for the poem.
Track 1- Literal Level of Poem Track 2- Personal Associations Track 3- Theme Track 4- Other Associations Track 5- Figurative Language Judgment Track 6- Time period of poem Track 7- Shifts
Literary Time Period and Author’s Life
Matthew Jenkins is not a very well known poet. His poem “Life is Truly Like a Stage” is probably his most well-known poem. We know very little about his personal life, but we do believe he has been living in the postmodernism era. This is ironic because the characteristics of this postmodern literary time period are as follows:
 | To allow for many meanings of words and to allow for many different worlds to write about |
| Nontraditional forms of writing very structured texts |
| Literature comments upon itself |
| It can be very personal |
| Cultural diversity |
| Flows together fiction and nonfiction facts |
| Uses the past thoroughly |
This literary time period of postmodernism literature represents many things from the past; Matthew Jenkins poem does not. What the poem does have, however, is personal implications to all people about how we should accept other people and their diversity along with ours. It tells us that we really do need to be unified, which relates to the cultural diversity that is a characteristic of the postmodernism literary era.
Track 1- Literal Level of Poem Track 2- Personal Associations Track 3- Theme Track 4- Other Associations Track 5- Figurative Language Judgment Track 6- Time period of poem Track 7- Shifts
The shifts in the poem “Life Is Truly Like a Stage” are not so much shifts in the feeling or mood, but it is truly more in the setting of mood of the poem. Instead of showing any significant changes from happy to sad, or war to peace, Matthew Jenkins makes changes from the melancholy setting of “filming our life”, to the melancholy setting of “intertwining” lovers’ lives, to the melancholy setting of “undying love”, to the melancholy setting of giving love to get love back, to the sad and melancholy setting of missing a chance with his love (Life Is Truly Like a Stage, throughout). These changes mean not that the change is in the mood or feeling of the poem, just that the setting of the poem changes. The structural changes in the poem, however, do occur quite frequently. There is a change after every four lines. After the eighth line of the poem, there is a forced rhyme which says “Would people love us as we grow?” This probably is really more of a rhetorical question which, in part, shows the reader the transition to the next part. The verses go from the word “grow” to “intertwine” which means that their love has suddenly gotten very serious. This is the point for Matthew Jenkins’s forced rhyme in line eight. So all in all, the shifts in the poem did not shift the overall mood, just the setting for the mood in the poem, “Life Is Truly Like a Stage”.
Track 1- Literal Level of Poem Track 2- Personal Associations Track 3- Theme Track 4- Other Associations Track 5- Figurative Language Judgment Track 6- Time period of poem Track 7- Shifts