ages of man

The Sphinx riddle by Sophocles, The Four Ages of Man by WB Yates, Life’s Brief Candle and As You Like It by William Shakespeare are all presenting the same issue of the level or ‘ages’ of man.
The sphinx riddle; “What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at evening?” which the answer is “Man” , suggest that, as a baby he crawls on all fours, then as a man he walks erect, then as an old man he uses cane.
Next, The Four Ages of Man; “He with body waged a fight,But body won; it walks upright.Then he struggled with the heart;Innocence and peace depart.Then he struggled with the mind;His proud heart he left behind.Now his wars on God begin;At stroke of midnight God shall win.” is also imply the time when a baby try to walk, grow up to the innocent child and teenager, be mature during the adult times and the day when a man died regardless of age.
Life’s Brief Candle however, advocates that a man’s life is like a play. The life begins, when the play start. And when the play ends, it means death to a man.
Besides, As You Like It tell the whole life of man. The speech marked the seven ‘ages’ of man from infant, school-boy, lover, soldier, the justice, slipper’d pantaloon to an end of second childishness.
Personally, I prefer the speech by Jaques in As You Like It as it shows the ages of man explicitly. The stages are also very similar to what is almost happen in each man. Moreover, the words used are simpler than those poems mentioned above.
Nevertheless, those poems and riddle show that there are many of literary works talk about the man’s life, whether in general or specific. It is interesting actually to deal with a very close issue to us. Even though some of them are really hard to interpret, the subject is truly fascinating.