How do poetic devices help suggest underlying meaning in the "All the world's a stage" monologue from As You Like It by William Shakespeare?

Jaques of As You Like It by William
Shakespeare employs the theatrical metaphor of "All the world's a stage" for his famous
monologue.  This speech is, of course, an extended metaphor as the idea of people
playing a role throughout life is carried througout the entire speech.  And, with this
metaphor of the life as a stage, there is the underlying suggestion that fate plays a
rather strong role in one's life and that one is not quite as independent as one
imagines oneself.  In addition, while the individual takes so seriously his/her role,
this role is yet merely entertainment for others as the audience in this theatre of
life.

Within the metaphors of each stage of life there are
other literary devices employed.  For instance, in the lines about the young boy, there
are similes:

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Then the whining school
boy with his satchel

And shining morning
face, creeping like
snail

Likewise,
in the description of the boy as he grows older there is also a
simile:

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And then the lover, sighing like
furnace

So,
too, is the soldier compared to a pard (an animal from Medieval
bestiaries):

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.....Then a
soldier

Full of strange oaths, and
bearded like the
pard

In
addition to the similes, Shakespeare employs much parallelism; for
instance,

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Jealous in honour, sudden and quick
in quarrel

With spectacles on
nose, and pouch on
side

Metaphor
is in this line:

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Seeking the bubble reputation

Personification
follows in the next line:

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Even in the cannon's
mouth

The
poetic devices, such as simile and metaphor and personification, help suggest the
underlying meaning by providing vivid comparisons that are commonplace, common to
everyone's experience, and humorously true and by creating vivid images that are easy to
understand.