Figures of speech are words or phrases used in a nonliteral way to create comparison, emphasis, or imaginative effect in a poem. Common examples include metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, and understatement. Poets use them to make language more suggestive and to help readers feel or picture an idea rather than simply state it.
Example
The moon was a silver coin in the sky,
The wind leaned close and whispered by,
My heart was a drum that thundered loud,
And noon lay like a sleeping cloud.