Following poetic/literary devices or figures of speech have been used in the poem Life:

1. Metaphor: It is a literary device that is used to make a comparison between two things that aren’t alike but do have something in common. e.g. the poet compares life with a sweet dream and joy.
2. Simile: It is a poetic device used to make comparison between two different things using “as” or “like”. e.g. “your hearts like billow”
3. Personification: It is the attribution of human characteristics to animals and non-human things. e.g. “some resistless hour shall rise and move your heart”. 
4. Symbolism: It is the use of symbols to represent things. e.g. “flames of amber and amethyst” symbolise struggles of life, “burn your brows with blood-red suffering” symbolise the pain which we bear when we grow up, “dream-shattering years” symbolise struggles of humans in their youth.
5. Alliteration: it is the use of the same letter or sound at the beginning of words that are close together. e.g. “life is a lovely stalactite”, “carnival of careless joy”, “burn your brows with blood-red sufferings”, “great grief”, wounded with fierce desire and worn with strife”.

Read summary of this poem.