Alliteration: Alliteration refers to the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines of poetry such as /s/ sound in “Death’s second self that seals up all in rest.”
Imagery: The use of imagery enables readers to understand the writer’s feelings and emotions. Shakespeare has used visual imagery such as, “When yellow leaves”, “sunset fadeth in the west,”, “by black night doth”, “thou see’st the twilight” and “boughs which shake against the cold.”
Symbolism: Symbolism is the act of using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings different from literal meanings. Shakespeare has used symbols such as, “Black night “and “sunset fadeth.” Both night and sunset symbolically stand for end or death.
Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same line such as /b/ sound in “Which by-and-by black night doth take away.”
Personification: Personification is to attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects. Shakespeare has used personification in the eighth line, “Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest” as if the death is human to have a self.
Metaphor: Shakespeare has used metaphors at several places in the poem such as, “When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang”, “the twilight of such day”, “black night” and “glowing of such fire that on the ashes of his youth doth lie.” These metaphors convey the late stages of his life. These phrases represent present, past and future time.
Metonymy: It is a figure of speech that replaces the name of things with something else with which it is closely associated. Here “bare ruin choirs” substitute the stripped branches.