allusion to Cupid reinforces the theme of love.

Secondly, there is an interesting allusion to a titan in act 2, scene 3. The titans ruled ancient Greece before the Olympian Gods, and Friar Lawrence references a “titan’s fiery wheels” as he is collecting flowers and herbs in the morning. The purpose of this illusion is to create a sense of haste. The Friar wants to gather the herbs before the sun comes up, or before the titan has had a chance to race his chariot across the sky.

Shakespeare uses many types of figurative language in Acts I and II of Romeo and Juliet.  If you look at the first link below, you will see one of my previous answers, where I list many allusions that appear in these acts.  Some others examples of figurative language are below:

Metaphor: This is used early on, when the Prince appears on the scene to break up the street brawl that erupts in Act I, i.  The Prince rebukes the brawlers with his words:

What, ho! you men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins ...

The men are compared to "beasts," their rage to "fire," and the spurting blood to "purple fountains."

Simile: One of the most well-known lines from the play arises when Romeo first sees Juliet and uses an exquisite simile:

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

In this speech, he compares the brightness of Juliet's beauty and the way she stands out in the night to a "rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear."  This speech also uses hyperbole in saying she "teach(es) the torches to burn bright."

Personification: This appears when Benvolio speaks to Romeo's parents, who are worried about their son.  They ask Benvolio if he has seen Romeo recently, and Benvolio responds:

Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the east,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad ...

Here, the sun is personified as "peering forth" as if it had eyes.

Hyperbole:  Romeo uses hyperbole when he asks, "Can I go forward when my heart is here?" (II, I, l.1). His heart is obviously not literally in the Capulet garden, but he feels he cannot leave Juliet's garden because he is so in love with her and cannot bear to be apart.  He also uses both simile and hyperbole when he talks of Juliet's brightness:

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.

Her cheek and her eyes are so bright that they would shame the stars and make the birds think it is still daytime.

Symbolism: When Mercutio teases Romeo to try to get him to reveal where he is hiding at the beginning of Act II, Romeo responds with the following:

"He jests at scars that never felt a wound" (II, ii).

He means that Mercutio can only make fun of Romeo being in love (his "scar") because Mercutio, himself, has never experienced the pain of unrequited love (a "wound").

Oxymoron: Romeo uses this when speaking to Benvolio in Act I, upon learning that there has been another street fight.  He says:

Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This speech, filled with contradictions, shows his frustration and confusion at the ongoing feud.  Romeo recognizes the feud has "much to do with hate but more with love."

Alliteration: Juliet uses this, with the repeated "l" sound, in response to her mother's question of whether she might be interested in Paris:

I'll look to like, if looking liking move:
But no more deep will I endart mine eye
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

Allusion: See first link below

Shakespeare makes extensive use of personification in his writing, a literary device in which human qualities or characteristics are attributed to a nonhuman thing, and there are many examples of it in Romeo and Juliet. Even just looking at the concept of love, we see numerous instances in the first three acts of the play in which Shakespeare personifies this abstract idea to show its importance to the story.

Benvolio and Mercutio often banter with Romeo about the nature of love, using personification to show love as something with its own desires and action:

BENVOLIO. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,
Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!
ROMEO. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!

Love is described as being tyrannous and rough, both human qualities, despite being gentle in appearance. Romeo laments that though love is "blind", it is still able to control and guide the lover's actions.

Mercutio uses Romeo's own personification of love to tell him how to fight back against its "tyrannous" nature:

ROMEO. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.
MERCUTIO. If love be rough with you, be rough with love;
Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.

Mercutio compares love to someone physically fighting with Romeo. He encourages Romeo to fight back and duel with love as he might with a man.

Mercutio seems to have a poor opinion of love in general, as he also later personifies Romeo's love as a wandering idiot:

For this drivelling love is like a great natural,
That runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

Romeo's love was like a fool wandering around looking for somewhere to hide a toy. It was meandering, useless, and childish.

At the end of the balcony scene, as Romeo is leaving, he personifies love to express his sadness in parting from Juliet:

Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books,
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

Love is here personified as a schoolboy who happily runs towards its beloved as a schoolboy would run from the books he hates to study, and who grudgingly must leave the beloved as a schoolboy must cease his playing and return to school.

The ways in which characters personify love throughout the play shows their own relationship to the concept, and these relationships help Shakespeare develop love as a central theme of the story.

In act 2, scene 2, Romeo is looking lovingly up at Juliet, who has just appeared at her bedroom window. After he compares Juliet to the sun (because of her radiant beauty) Romeo says that the sun should "kill the envious moon, / Who is already sick and pale with grief." In this quotation, Romeo is personifying the moon, attributing to it the human emotions of envy and grief. Romeo's meaning is that the light of the moon pales into insignificance compared to the light of the sun (and thus the beauty of Juliet) and is sick with envy for the brighter light of the sun.

In act 2, scene 3, we meet Friar Laurence, who is up at the break of dawn to tend to his plants. To let the audience know what time of day it is, Friar Laurence says, "The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night." The morning is here personified as Friar Laurence says that it has eyes and "smiles", and the evening is also personified because Friar Laurence says that it is "frowning." The morning is smiling because it is about to replace the evening, and the evening is "frowning" because it is being replaced.

In act 3, scene 3, Romeo is complaining about his exile, which has been ordered because he killed Tybalt. Romeo says that "exile hath more terror in his look, / Much more than death." Here, Romeo personifies both exile and death because he says that both have a "look," implying that both have eyes to look with. Romeo is saying here that exile is worse than death because in exile he will be aware of being away from Juliet, whereas in death he would at least not be aware of this. This is why, for him, there is a greater "terror" in exile than in death.

Personification is not only demonstrated when an animal is given human characteristics, but also when inanimate objects receive them, too. The following are some examples with explanations of how Shakespeare creates personification. In this first example, Lord Capulet speaks with Paris about when to allow Juliet to marry.

"Let two more summers wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride" (I.ii.10-11).

The main demonstration of personification is when Capulet alludes to the fact that summertime, a season, has pride. Pride is an emotion known only to humans. 

Next, Romeo uses personification when he is encouraging Juliet to kiss him.

"My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss" (I.v.92-93).

The above quote shows Romeo comparing his lips to two blushing pilgrims who are ready to kiss her. The lips, therefore, although part of the human body, are given the ability to blush as people do. Also, mentioning pilgrims means that they (his lips) are searching for something sacred, which are again human qualities. 

One more example of personification is when Juliet awaits her newly married husband to her chamber. As she thinks about him finding his way to her in the night, she says the following:

"Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron all in black" (III.ii.10-11).

Juliet refers to the night as "civil," which is a human quality. Then, the night is also a "sober-suited matron," or a cautious and careful woman. All of these examples help the reader or audience to apply mental imagery to their other senses or ideas suggested by the author. Readers or audience members gain deeper insight to the movements, feelings, or personalities of the characters towards a deeper understanding through this device. 

Personification is when an animal or object is given human characteristics. So when any non-human thing does something that a human would do, it is being personified. A simple example is "the wind whispered." Whispering is something that a human does, not the wind. The wind has been personified here.

Examples of personification from Act 1 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:

"Ay me! sad hours seem long."  (Being sad is a human characteristic, but it is being attributed to hours here; hours are personified.)

"These happy masks that kiss fair ladies’ brows." (Same thing here, masks are personified.)

"And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes Even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being anger’d, puffs away from thence." (Humans woo, are angered and puff; wind is personified here.)

From the balcony scene:Act I, scene ii

Romeo:

But soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!--
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,

 R&J is filled with personification.  Hope this helps.  Brenda

William Shakespeare uses humor to introduce a central motif, the association of love and sex with death, which runs through the entire play. This includes a metaphor comparing a girl’s “maidenhead” to death rather than to love, which occurs first in Samson’s pun, as he shortens “maidenhead” into “head.” Much later, in act 4, when Juliet threatens suicide, she says that Death will take her maidenhead. An extended metaphor is the device called a conceit.

In this scene, Tybalt’s behavior is shown through personification of the winds. Tybalt speaks and acts rashly and violently, which Benvolio shows by saying that he “cut the winds, / Who nothing hurt withal hiss'd him in scorn.” Benvolio further uses personification in speaking with Lady Montague by describing sunrise: “the worshipp'd sun / Peer'd forth the golden window of the east.” Lord Montague further personifies the sun. The reference or allusion is to Aurora, Roman goddess of the dawn.

The all-cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed . . .

Montague uses a simile to describe his son’s odd behavior; it is as “secret” as a “worm” inside a flower’s “bud”:

But to himself so secret and so close,
So far from sounding and discovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm . . .

Romeo’s speech about love uses several metaphors for love, as well as juxtaposition, the contrast of opposites, such as fire and water:

Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears . . .

Romeo and Juliet, Act I

Metaphor: "At my poor house look to behold this night / Earth-treading stars that make heaven light" (I.ii) -- Lord Capulet compares the women who will be at his party to heavenly stars whose beauty will light up the room. He is most likely referring specifically to his daughter, to whom Paris will hopefully become engaged. 

Oxymoron: "Oh brawling love! Oh loving hate!" (I.i) -- Romeo, mourning over the loss of Rosaline's love, calls love "brawling", or violent and aggressive, and calls hate "loving", or close and intimate. 

Simile: "We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf, / Bearing a Tartar's bow of lath, / Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper" (I.iv) -- Benvolio seriously doubts the abilities of Mercutio, Romeo, and himself to woo women when wearing masks and disguises to attend the Capulet party. He claims they are more likely to scare women away, comparing them to keepers of crows, which were kept around areas of execution. 

Allusion: "she'll not be hit / with Cupid's arrow" (I.i) -- Romeo, complaining about Rosaline's coldness, references Greek mythology, claiming that she refuses to succumb to passion, which Cupid's arrow would instill in her. 

Pun: "I will show myself a tyrant: when I / have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the / maids, and cut off their heads" (I.i) -- While bragging to Gregory, Sampson using this phrase for a double, witty meaning. He claims that he will cut off the heads of the men, or decapitate them, but then do the same to the women. However, in their case, he is referring to their virginity, which at this point in time was referred to as a "maidenhead". 

Personification: "Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face / and find delight writ there with beauty's pen" (I.iii) -- Lady Capulet is instructing Juliet to fall in love with Paris, and when doing so, explains that he will be equally smitten with her. In fact, she says that his delight will be obvious, as if applied by beauty itself. However, she gives beauty human characteristics, saying that beauty would write this beauty with its own pen. 

Literal vs. Figurative Language: 

Shakespeare easily could have stated any of this, but by using figurative language, his writing is more like poetry than prose. He creates vivid images and cultural references for his audience that forces them to think carefully about what he is saying. As a result, the audience is more deeply drawn into the play. 

One example of personification can be seen when we first meet Romeo in the very first scene. He is feeling brokenhearted because Rosaline is rejecting him and also feeling frustrated by love. He feels that love is a torturous emotion because everyone is swayed by love whether a person wants to be or not; it's as if love bends a person to its will. Romeo expresses this sentiment when he personifies love in the lines, "Alas that love, whose view is muffled still, / Should without eyes see pathways to his will!" (I.i.169-70). In these lines, love is being personified as a blind person that is capable of manipulating someone into falling in love and becoming brokenhearted. However, these lines are also an example of an allusion. An allusion is when an author refers to another person or event found in another piece of literature. These lines are a classic allusion to Cupid, the Roman god of erotic love. Cupid is always portrayed as blindfolded; hence, love being personified as blind is an allusion to Cupid.

Many similes and metaphors can be seen all throughout the play, especially in the first act. We especially see examples of similes and metaphors in the speech in which Romeo first sees Juliet. He compares her beauty to brightness, especially comparing it to a rich jewel, like a diamond, hanging against very dark skin, as we see in the line, "Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear" (I.v.48). Since this line begins with the word like and compares Juliet to a jewel against dark skin, we see that it is a perfect example of a simile.
A metaphor can also be seen in this passage when he compares Juliet to a flaming torch in the very first line of this speech. Metaphors, like similes, are comparisons; the difference is that in a metaphor the comparison is much more direct, like saying she is something rather than she is like something. The line, "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" is a perfect example of a metaphor because she can only teach flaming torches to burn brightly if she is a torch herself and burning even more brightly than the other torches.

Let two more summers wither in their pride
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

And too soon marred are those so early made.

One figure of speech is personification, giving human qualities to non-human things.  Capulet personifies the Earth when talking to Paris about Juliet:

The earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she  (Act II, scene i)

The earth is giving a "mouth" to demonstrate how the passage of time has caused Capulet's dreams to be unfulfilled.  This is also imagery because it gives a clear image of a scene.

Another figure of speech is metaphor, the comparison between two unlike things.  Benvolio uses a metaphor when speaking to Romeo about his heartache:

one fire burns out another's burning,
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish (act I, scene ii)

The "fire" mentioned here is being compared to Romeo's pain.  Benvolio is saying everyone has pain (there are always fires everywhere) but that the pain does burn out.  In other words, Romeo will move on from this, and there will be other heartaches - but also other joys.  The fire burning out is also an example of imagery.

There is little question that the poetry of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is absolutely stellar (forgive the pun).  The light/dark imagery extends from the opening prologue which mentions the "star-crossed" lovers until the end of the play.  Each line is written in iambic pentatmeter, giving a melodic lilt to each passage.

When Romeo first sees Juliet, he is star-struck:

Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear--
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.
(I,v,41-46)

In this passage, Shakespeare employs simile, alliteration,and light/dark imagery to express Romeo's infatuation with the lovely Juliet.  Then, when Romeo does speak to Juliet for the first time, their language is elevated to the form of a sonnet in which each speaks seven lines of the extended metaphor of his lips being pilgrims on their way to the "holy shrine" of Juliet's lips. Romeo falls immediately in love; he adores Juliet, and begs her to grant him a kiss, "lest faith turn to despair."  He tells Juliet, "Thus from my lips by thine my sin is purged." [perfect meter!]

The imagery of the sonnet is that of reverent devotion; Romeo and Juliet's love is pure and holy, unlike the infatuation that Romeo has felt for Rosalind.  Rosalind now becomes associated with darkness and Juliet with lightness.

There are numerous examples of personification in act 2 of Romeo and Juliet. A particularly good one comes from Friar Laurence in scene 3, as he goes about filling his basket with various plants and herbs. In his very first lines in the play, he says,

The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night (2.3.1–2).

This is a classic example of personification, which is the attribution of human characteristics to that which isn't human, such as animals and features of the natural world. In this particular case, Friar Laurence is attributing human characteristics to the morning and the night. The morning smiles just like a human being, and the night, by the same token, frowns. Darkness has given way to light, frowns to smiles, and the scene is a very happy one.

But Friar Laurence isn't done with personifying just yet. He goes on to refer to the sun advancing his “burning eye” as it melts away the morning dew. As for the darkness, it stumbles out of the sun's inexorable path "like a drunkard."

The Friar goes on to describe the Earth as “nature's mother,” meaning that the Earth gives birth to all the wonderful plants we see around us, many of which the Friar pops into his basket.

At the very beginning of the act, the Chorus says, 

Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir.
That fair for which love groaned for and would die,
With tender Juliet matched, is now not fair.  (2.1-4)

In these lines old desire is personified, as it is given the ability to lie in a deathbed and die; further, young affection is personified as being ready to become the heir to old desire, which means that young affection is going to replace old desire in Romeo's heart.  It is given the human quality of being an heir and experiencing anticipation.  The beauty that Romeo's love groaned for and would die is personified as experiencing painful emotion and death.  

Then, after Romeo runs away from his friends to scale the wall to Juliet's garden, Mercutio tries to compel him to return or at least confess his purpose.  When Romeo does not answer, Benvolio tells Mercutio that 

he hath hid himself among these trees
To be consorted with the humorous night.  (2.1.33-34)

In these lines, Benvolio personifies night as something with whom one can consort, like a friend with whom one can be in league, and he also calls night humorous, another way of saying that the night is moody.  

Hearing his friend, Mercutio, mocking him, Romeo then says, 

He jests at scars that never felt a wound. (2.2.1)

Emotional scars cannot feel the wound that makes them, and so Romeo personifies scars here as being capable of such conscious feeling.

Further, when he sees Juliet upon her balcony, he says,

Her eye discourses; I will answer it. (2.2.13)

He means that her eyes seem to speak to him and he longs to answer them.  Eyes, obviously, cannot talk in a literal sense, and so he personifies them by suggesting that they can.

He goes on to say,

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.  (2.2.15-17)

Romeo personifies the stars, suggesting that they have something other than shining to which they must attend, and so they beg Juliet's eyes to take their places until they can come back.

Personification is a figure of speech where human qualities are given to non-human things like ideas, objects or animals. (It seems like a metaphor, but it is actually the opposite!) Act 2 has many examples of personification, but there are great examples in the speeches in the famous balcony scene (Act 2, Scene 2). I'll outline three examples and explain how they use personification. 

ROM: Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, /Who is already sick and pale with grief /That thou her maid art far more fair than she. (II.ii.4-6)

Here, Romeo gives the moon human qualities, imagining the moon to be jealous of Juliet because Juliet is more beautiful than the moon. 

ROM: My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, /Because it is an enemy to thee. (II.ii.59-60)

Romeo gives his name human qualities when he describes it as hateful and his enemy. Of course, a name is only a name - Juliet goes into this idea in her own speech - but Romeo imagines his name as a literal enemy.

JUL: My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words /Of that tongue's utterance, yet I know the sound. /Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague? (II.ii.62-64)

In this section, Juliet describes her ears as being able to drink words. Of course, the function of an ear is to hear, not drink. A person can drink, not an ear. Furthermore, sometimes a person drinks so much they become drunk or bloated. This is similar to how she believes her ears react when they hear Romeo. 

Both similes and metaphors are types of analogies. An analogy is a comparison between two things to show their similarities or relationship. Similes are the easiest type of analogies to spot because they are all made using the adverbs like or as. Dr. Wheeler gives us an example from Robert Burns, "O, my love is like the a red, red rose" ("Literary Terms and Definitions: S"). In this line, Burns is very obviously comparing his love to a rose using the adverb is. Therefore, to quickly find a simile, all you have to do is skim through the passages in question until you find the words like or as; more often than not, but not always, you have also found a simile.
Metaphors, on the other hand, are analogies that figuratively state something is something else; it's no longer like something else; instead, it is that something else. Dr. Wheeler gives us an example from Martin Luther stating, "A mighty fortress is our God." Here, Luther is likening God to a fortress by saying that God is a fortress. Metaphors can be harder to spot, but one easy way is to skim through the passage in question until you find the verb is. The verb is is commonly used, but there is a chance that there is a metaphor surrounding the verb. Below are a couple of ideas to help get you started.
Metaphors can be seen in the first few lines of Romeo's opening soliloquy in Act 2, Scene 2. Two metaphors can be found in the lines, "What light through yonder window breaks? / It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!" (II.ii.2-3). The first metaphor, "It is the East," compares the lighted window to the east, the direction in which the sun rises. The second metaphor, "Juliet is the sun," compares Juliet to the sun, which is to say that her beauty is so radiant that it is as if she glows like the sun. Many other metaphors, including an extended metaphor, can also be found in this one soliloquy.
A simile can likewise be found in this same scene when Juliet tells him she feels it is far too sudden and rash for them to exchange vows of love that night. She compares the rashness and suddenness of exchanging vows to lightening that quickly lights up the sky and just as suddenly vanishes, as we see in her lines:

It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say "It lightens." (124-26)

Since this analogy comparing rashness to lightning uses the word like, we know that this is a perfect example of a simile.

One example of animal imagery appears in the first scene of Act II. Mercutio is calling for Romeo, who has ditched him and Benvolio. Because Romeo is silent to his pleas, Mercutio says he will "conjure" Romeo, urging his friend to say one simple word, such as "love" or "dove." Romeo is silent, though, because he wants to avoid Mercutio to catch another glimpse of Juliet. Mercutio then compares Romeo to a little monkey (ape and monkey would have been synonymous in Shakespeare's day and in this case the writer only needed a one-syllable word) who is playing dead:

He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not.
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.

Hist, Romeo, hist! O, for a falc’ner’s voice
To lure this tassel-gentle back again!

When Romeo is in Juliet's garden and she speaks from her balcony (not yet knowing he's there), he says she should speak again because she is "As glorious to this night" as is "a winged messenger of heaven." His imagery here compares her to an angel. He pursues this conceit: the angel is glorious "Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes / Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him." She is an angel above, and mortals look upon her with "wondering" (awestruck) eyes, as they are unworthy to look upon her. 

He also uses the "her eyes are like stars!" simile, but he's a bit more creative in how he presents it: 

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.

That is, two actual stars had business elsewhere, so they asked her eyes to stand in for them while they were gone. 

There are multiple options to choose from in this scene. Imagery can be defined as vivid and descriptive language that appeals to the reader's senses. In Act 2, scene 2, Romeo spies on Juliet from her garden as she stands on her balcony. The party has just ended and the lovers have realized each other's true identity. Smitten, Romeo has resorted to stalker tactics and Juliet has isolated herself to mourn her new crush. 

Romeo begins Act 2, scene 2, by using light and dark imagery to compare Juliet's beauty to that of the sun's brilliance in the morning. He mentions the moon as a pale imitation to the sun and notes that others must be jealous of how beautiful Juliet is.

He continues to use the light/dark imagery as he compares the twinkling of Juliet's eyes to the stars in the skies and how her cheek's brightness could shame the real stars to dim.

Metonymy is a literary device that substitutes one idea for something closely related to it. In the line "Deny thy father and refuse thy name," Juliet uses name to really mean family. She isn't just calling Romeo to turn from his name in this line but to turn away from his entire family, which is the source of their angst. Likewise, she swears to "no longer be a Capulet" in return. She is willing to not only give up her name but all that is associated with her family in order to be with Romeo.

Anaphora is the repetition of certain words in successive phrases, clauses, or lines of poetry. This structure is present in the following lines (bold added for emphasis):

It is nor hand nor foot
Nor arm nor face nor any other part
Belonging to a man.

This long string of clauses is separated with nor dividing the various body parts, which both enunciates Juliet's reflective thoughts in this soliloquy and makes that final, unnamed body part a humorous addition for the benefit of the audience as she seems to build to that rather sexual reference.

A metaphor is employed in these lines:

That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Here, a rose represents things that are beautiful and desirable. Romeo is Juliet's rose, but the rose could represent any other object of beauty. The idea is that a rose's beauty isn't diminished simply by changing the word by which it is identified, just as Romeo's appeal cannot be changed because of the last name he carries, whether that happens to be Montague or some other name.

In this passage, as Juliet laments the differences between their families, she switches from speaking to Romeo to speaking about him, and then back again. She begins and ends by using apostrophe, or direct address.

O Romeo!...
Romeo, doff thy name....

The passage as a whole is an example of a conceit, or an extended metaphor. Juliet compares a person to a name in a number of different ways. Her comparison makes the point that the two things—a person and their name—are different. In doing so, she lists a number of parts. For emphasis, she employs syndeton. This device involves the addition and repetition of a conjunction for emphasis, in a situation where a comma would suffice. Juliet does this with "nor."

Juliet uses another metaphor, comparing a person to a rose and its sweet aroma to goodness.

Alliteration can be seen in the line: "it is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor for face, nor any other part belonging to a man." This is an example of alliteration because the consonant "n" is repeated with the repetition of the word "nor." Alliteration is a figure of speech because it makes use of redundant repetition in order to emphasize a point. This line also makes use of climax, because it begins with the least important body elements, such as "hand" or "foot" and ends with the most important, such as "face," and finally, "nor any other part belonging to a man." This final phrase is especially important because it can be translated as a sexual innuendo.

Parallelism can be seen in the line: "Deny thy father and refuse thy name." Shakespeare used the parallel syntactical structure of verb+pronoun+noun/verb+pronoun+noun in order to emphasize the point.
Antimetabole can be seen in the line: "So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd." This is an example of antimetabole because the line repeats the verb "to be" through the conjugations "would" and "were" and then reverses them: "Romeo would, were he not." Also, the clause "were he not Romeo call'd" reverses the normal word order and is therefore an example of hyperbaton. Normally we would say something like, "if he was not called Romeo."

In addition to the examples mentioned in the previous answer, another example of images of light is shown when Romeo compares Juliet's eyes to stars in the night sky. He says: "Two of th fairest stars in all the heaven,/Having some business, do entreat her eyes/To twinkle in their spheres till they return." Romeo is saying that if the stars had to leave their position to attend to something else, they would ask Juliet's eyes to shine in their place because they are as bright and beautiful. Romeo continues this light imagery by comparing Juliet's cheek to the starts saying that the "brightness of her cheek would shame those stars/As daylight doth a lamp;"

The scene begins when Romeo speaks about the rising sun and compares Juliet to it and says that the moon is 'envious' of Juliet's beauty. Juliet is described as a 'bright angel' so light is being seen as something positive.

However, later in the scene darkness is described as 'night's cloak' which means that Romeo is using it to hide so he can enter the Capulet's grounds. In this way darkness could be seen as something useful. Juliet also says that darkness is useful as it hides the fact that she blushes when Romeo talks to her; 'the mask of night is on my face.'

Light is also used in a different way when Juliet says 'And not impute this yielding to light love' which means she does not want Romeo to think she is taking what is happening lightly.

The coming of the light at the end of the scene marks the end of their exchange and we are left to wonder on what will happen next.

Imagery is used throughout Act 2, Scene 2 as Romeo and Juliet describe their love for one another.

Romeo is the first one to use imagery to exaggerate Juliet’s beauty, showing how much he loves her.

It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! 
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, 
Who is already sick and pale with grief(5) 
That thou her maid art far more fair than she. (Act 2, Scene 2)

Romeo compares Juliet to the sun.  He loves her so much that he describes how jealous the moon should be, and describes the moon as pale because it grieves to not be as pretty as Juliet.  Romeo makes other metaphors and similes throughout the act and the play, demonstrating how overly smitten he is.

Juliet also uses imagery and comparisons to show her love for Romeo.  She wants to know why he is named what he is named, because she could love him if not for his name.

What's in a name? That which we call a rose(45)
By any other name would smell as sweet. 
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes 
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;  (Act 2, Scene 2)

Juliet’s comparison to names and roses shows the frustration she feels at the fickleness of the feud.  In loving Romeo, she is dishonoring her family.  It is a difficult choice to make.

The exaggeration in the language of the two lovers shows that they care about each other very much, and that their love has blinded them to the reality of their situation. 

In act 2, scene 5, Romeo and Friar Lawrence wait for Juliet to meet them so the young lovers can be married in secret. The major use of figurative language comes in the form of Friar Lawrence's metaphor comparing love to both gunpowder and honey:

These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die; like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume: the sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness,
And in the taste confounds the appetite:
Therefore, love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

In other words, gunpowder and fire consume one another violently when they "kiss." This metaphor is brilliant in that it illustrates how destructive passion can be, even if its source is something positive like love. The kissing imagery also gives the violent image an erotic tinge, mirroring the thematic love–death duality of Romeo and Juliet's relationship.

Similarly, romantic passion, like honey, can be too much of a good thing. Sweet, sticky honey can make a person sick if they eat too much of it. Similarly, if Romeo and Juliet let their passionate feelings spin out of control, they could end up hurting themselves in the process or even burn themselves out on one another. By advising the two to "love moderately," Friar Lawrence is hoping to make sure the marriage will last and not end in disaster.

Combined together, these two very different images—ignited gunpowder and honey—work well as metaphors for romantic love. They show just how complicated love is: both exciting and dangerous, both sweet in how it can inspire joy and "loathsome" in how it can inspire pain. Like anything else in Romeo and Juliet, love is a double-edged matter, and Friar Lawrence's metaphor foretells the bitterness to come as a result of Romeo and Juliet's union.

Similes compare two unlike qualities or objects using the word like or as. The best example of a simile in this scene occurs in lines 9–10:

These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder

Romeo and Juliet take great "delight" in each other despite the "violent" hatred which exists between their families. Friar Laurence predicts that the couple may triumph for a moment but believes that their love is much "like fire and powder," which is destined for an explosion. This simile foreshadows the powerful, devastating ending which awaits the couple.

A metaphor compares two unlike objects without using like or as. The love Romeo and Juliet share is compared to honey in these lines:

The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.

Even a sweet "honey" becomes an overwhelming and unappetizing food if eaten alone "in [its] own deliciousness." Instead, honey should be moderated, added as a sweetener to other foods and beverages. Friar Laurence likewise believes that Romeo and Juliet should make some efforts to moderate the depths of their love, choosing to "love moderately" and thus "long."

You might also consider the friar's use of "everlasting flint" as a metaphor for Juliet's grit. The friar indicates that Juliet, who treads so lightly upon the ground, will never be able to endure life's challenges.

Metaphor.

When Mercutio discovers that he has been wounded by Tybalt, he cries, "A plague o' both your houses!" He is referring here to the two families, the Capulets and the Montagues. Mercutio does not literally mean that he wishes both families to suffer with the plague, but the plague is meant as a general metaphor representing misfortune and distress. Mercutio wants both families to suffer because he thinks that his wound, and consequently his inevitable death, has been caused by the fighting between the two families.

Simile.

When Romeo enquires about Mercutio's wound, Mercutio replies by comparing his wound to a well and a church door. He says that his wound is "not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church door." The fact that Mercutio uses extreme examples of depth and width to describe his own knife wound indicates that the wound is serious. A wound in human flesh comparable to the depth of a well or the width of a church door is, of course, not an insignificant wound.

Rhetorical Question.

When the Prince arrives on the scene, and after Benvolio has explained what has just happened, the Prince asks, "Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?" The Prince here is referring to the seemingly endless, retaliatory spilling of blood. The feud between the two families has led to Mercutio's death, and Mercutio's death has led to Tybalt's death, and now the Prince asks who will die next. He poses the question as a rhetorical question, meaning that he doesn't want or expect an answer, but is asking just to make the point that the endless cycle of violence has become self-perpetuating and has gone too far.

As the climactic scene of the play, Scene 1 of Act III opens with literary techniques:

• Foreshadowing

The first public place was the site of much acrimony; this location on a day that is hot portends danger as words such as "hot," "brawl," and "mad blood" are used.

• Simile and Chiasmus

Mercutio compares Benvolio to a sman ready to fight by the second drink using a simile:  

Thou artlikeone of those fellows that when he enters the confines of a tavern claps me his sword upon the table and ...by the operation of the second cup draws him on the drawer, when indeed there is no need.

Mercutio counters with a simile himself (first bold phrase) as well as using alliteration with the /m/. And, the phrase in which "as soon moved to be moody" is balanced against the following phrase that is inversed, "as soon moody to be moved," is a rhetorical device called chiasmus.

Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved.

This device is also used in Mercutio's longer speech beginning with "Nay...." 
Then, there is another simile:  "Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat"

• Irony

It is ironic that Mercutio scolds Benvolio for his anger when he will soon explode into invective against Tybalt.

• Wordplay

Of course, Mercutio banters words with Tybalt excercising wordplay, taunting him with seemingly playful remarks:

TYBALT:  You shall find me apt enough to that, sir, an you will give me occasion.
MERCUTIO: Could you not take some occasion without giving?

• Puns

Mercutio plays on the double-meaning of "consort" in his retort to Tybalt

TYBALT: Mercutio, thou consor'st with Romeo,--
MERCUTIO: Consort! what, doest thou make us minstrels? an
thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but 
but discords: here's that shall make you dance. 'Zounds, consort!

Another pun that Mercutio uses is on the word "grave." When he tells Romeo :ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man," he means both no longer joking, but "serious" and also "dead."

• Personification

Mercutio affords submitting to Tybalt's insults the qualities attributed to people: "O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!"

• Allusion

Mercutio makes reference to "King of Cats," a sobrique that he has given Tybalt. when he calls Tybalt a "rat catcher."

• Metaphor

After the enraged Romeo kills Tybalt, he calls himself "fortune's fool," a metaphor (comparison in which one thing/person is equated for another quality, person, thing) for his being a victim of fate.

In act 3, scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet is making an overall comparison between the coming night and her anticipation of meeting Romeo then. She also refers to their love and its consummation after they marry. Some of the metaphors that Juliet uses refer to light and the sun, which she wants to pass quickly. Many of them refer to night and darkness.

A metaphor is a direct comparison of unlike things for effect. Juliet combines these with personification, the attribution of human qualities to inanimate things, animals, natural phenomena, or concepts. She also employs apostrophe, or direct address.

Juliet begins with apostrophe, metaphor, and personification in lines 1–3. She speaks directly to time, metaphorically calling it “fiery-footed steeds” or fast horses that are pulling a chariot. This figure of speech also uses allusion, reference to literary or historic figures and events. In ancient Greece, fast horses pulled a chariot that Phaeton drove toward the sun—here personified as Phoebus, another name for Apollo, the sun god.

In line 5, she again uses apostrophe and personification, switching her direct address to night. Using “close curtain” as a metaphor for darkness, she implores night to spread it over the sky. In lines 11–12, she continues addressing night, this time calling it a married woman wearing black clothes: “Thou sober-suited matron, all in black” In line 16, she continues this metaphor, referring to night’s “black mantle.”

Juliet also contrasts the brightness of Romeo to stars that illuminate heaven. Speaking again to night, she asks it to bring her Romeo and, after his death, to turn him into “little stars.”

In lines 26–27, Juliet compares her unconsummated love to a house that the new owner does not live in yet:

O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possess'd it.

She then modifies this to compare herself to the house, saying “though I am sold, / Not yet enjoy'd.”

In act 3, scene 3, of Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence meets with Romeo after he has killed Tybald. Their conversation is replete with figures of speech. Here are some of them.

Personification: The lines attribute human qualities to several abstract concepts. The priest says that Romeo is "wedded to calamity," and Romeo asks what sorrow wants to be his "acquaintance."

Hyperbole: In Romeo's excited state, he expresses his feelings by excessive exaggeration. He equates banishment with murder, stating that life away from Verona will be "purgatory, torture, hell itself." He speaks at length about how the flies that remain in Verona are better off than he because they will be able to touch and kiss Juliet, but he will not even be able to see her. The priest engages in some hyperbole himself, promising that eventually Romeo will return "with twenty hundred thousand times more joy than thou went’st forth in lamentation."

Puns: There are a couple of clever puns in this passage. Shakespeare plays on the sense of "doom," meaning judgment, in Romeo's line, "What less than doomsday is the Prince’s doom?" Another example from Romeo is this line: "Flies may do this, but I from this must fly."

Metaphor: Romeo tells Friar Lawrence that by telling him of his banishment, he cuts his head off with a "golden ax" that murders him. Later he compares his sentence to poison and a "sharp-ground knife." Explaining to the nurse why Romeo is lying on the floor, Friar Lawrence says that Romeo's tears have made him drunk. Friar Lawrence scolds Romeo with the following metaphorical language, which also contains puns:

"Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts
The unreasonable fury of a beast.
Unseemly woman in a seeming man,
And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both!"

In Act III, Scene III of William Shakespeare's tragedyRomeo and Juliet, the play's young male protagonist has been hiding with Friar Laurence while waiting for news of the punishment to which he will be subjected for his killing of Tybalt. As throughout Shakespeare's play, examples of hyperbole are numerous and begin right away. The friar enters his cell and summons Romeo, who, at least to the friar, has been granted a relatively benign reprieve: he will be permitted to live, but in exile from Verona. The friar declares that the young, tragic romantic seems destined for bad things: "Romeo, come forth, come forth, thou fearful man: affliction is enamored of thy parts, and thou art wedded to calamity." This is an example of hyperbole in that the friar is using exaggerated language to describe Romeo's tendency towards disasters. And this is the first line in Act III, Scene III. More such examples follow, including Romeo's response to Friar Laurence's announcement that the former's life will be spared, but that he must be banished from Verona: "Ha, banishment! Be merciful, say 'death'...Much more than death: do not say 'banishment.'" The friar believes that he is delivering good news to Romeo. The anticipated punishment for Romeo was death. Romeo, however, considers banishment or exile the practical equivalent of death because exile will deprive him of access to Juliet, with whom, as we know, he is quite smitten. Romeo's language, then, qualifies as an example of hyperbole.

Examples of hyperbole continue to pile up as Romeo decries the fate meted out to him by the prince of Verona: "Tis torture and not mercy; heaven is here." Again, Romeo uses exaggeration to make a point by suggesting that banishment from Verona is tantamount, in this example, to torture. And, soon after, Romeo again engages in exaggerated language to emphasize his disdain for the punishment of banishment: "There is no world without Verona's walls, but purgatory, torture, hell itself." We can logically surmise from Romeo's repeated employment of hyperbole that he is seriously unhappy about the prospect of being exiled, and it will be Juliet's nurse, upon her arrival, who attempts to verbally admonish him for his theatrics while Juliet lies weeping in her chambers.

Shakespeare was a master of language, and his use of hyperbole was frequent and poetic. Examples of its use run throughout Romeo and Juliet, as characters use exaggerated rhetoric for maximum effect. 

There is no world without Verona walls
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence “banishèd” is banished from the world,

There are several important instances of figurative language within scenes 3-5 of Act 3 of Romeo and Juliet.  When Romeo curses his banishment, he uses hyperbole in his cry, "There is no world outside Verona walls" (line 17).  Hyperbole, an exaggerated or overdone statement that is not intended literally, is evident here.  Clearly, there is a world outside Verona walls, one that Romeo himself will visit when he moves to Mantua shortly thereafter.  It is simply that it does not feel that way to Romeo.  

Later in the same act, Shakespeare makes intentional use of alliteration (repetition of an initial consonant sound) when he writes, "Stand up, stand up. Stand, and you be a man / For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand" (lines 88 and 89).  Here the initial "s" sound is repeated in "stand" and "sake."  There is an additional "s" sound in "Juliet's" as well, so that when the lines are performed, the "s" sound is quite prominent.

Act 3, Scene 4 is short, and largely furthers the plot.  As the scene changes to Scene 5, however, instances of figurative language reemerge.  In line 9 of Scene 5, Romeo uses personification in the lines, "... jocund day / Stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintop."  Personification, the attribution of human characteristics to something not human, is evident here, as Romeo conjures an image of the day waiting on tiptoes to approach once night has left.  

Finally, in the same act, Juliet uses a simile (direct comparison using the words "like" or "as") when she bids Romeo goodbye, "Methinks I see thee now, thou art so low  / As one dead in the bottom of a tomb." Here, she uses a simile to compare Romeo to someone dead and in a tomb.  This is a true instance of foreshadowing, as Romeo will soon be dead.  Thus, figurative language abounds both in the general play and, more specifically, in the latter half of Act Three.

There are several excellent examples of imagery in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Just in Act I, imagery abounds: Romeo's indictment of his unrequited love for Rosaline ("O, brawling love, O loving hate); the Prince's monologue about violence in the street ("With purple fountains issuing from your veins"); Mercutio's Queen Mab speech ("foul sluttish hairs"). Imagery is visually descriptive language which often uses figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, personification, oxymorons and others. Maybe the best example of imagery which surfaces throughout the play is the imagery involving Shakespeare's theme of light and dark. 

Romeo often compares Juliet to the brightest thing he has ever seen. In Act I, Scene 5 he uses imagery involving personification and a simile to describe Juliet across the room at Capulet's party:

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear—

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.

Seeing Juliet across the room at the Capulets' party, Romeo is immediately besotted. He falls in love with Juliet's beauty. He proclaims that she is "like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear." The intended meaning of this simile is that Juliet's beauty is, to Romeo, so radiant as to make everything and everyone else around her appear dark by comparison. The comparison of her beauty to "a rich jewel" further suggests that her beauty is precious and rare. Romeo uses a second simile to convey much the same idea. He says that Juliet is like "a snowy dove trooping with crows." The motif of light and whiteness suggests that Juliet's beauty seems to Romeo to be pure and perhaps even heavenly or angelic.

Romeo also uses hyperbolic language when he says that Juliet's beauty is so incredible that it is "for earth too dear!" In other words, Juliet's beauty seems to him to be transcendent and beyond the ordinariness of earth. Romeo also says that Juliet's beauty is "too rich for use," again using hyperbole to suggest that Juliet's beauty is special and unique. Romeo is obviously feeling completely in love and overwhelmed with Juliet's beauty.

Later in the same scene, Romeo asks Juliet for her hand, and he refers to her hand metaphorically as "this holy shrine." The implication of this metaphor is that Juliet's beauty is heavenly and that Romeo is so in love with her that he wants to worship her. He later refers to his own lips as "two blushing pilgrims." The suggestion of this metaphor is that Romeo feels as if he has been traveling all of his life to meet with Juliet, just as a pilgrim travels a long way on their pilgrimage to a holy place. Romeo feels about Juliet as a pilgrim might feel about a religious figure.

When Romeo sneaks into the garden beneath Juliet's balcony, he says,

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. (2.2.2-9)

Here, Romeo uses a metaphor to compare Juliet's window to the east, where the sun rises, and he develops this metaphor into another metaphor, by which he compares Juliet to the sun itself. He, likewise, personifies the moon, saying that she feels grief and envy of Juliet, the sun, because Juliet is more beautiful than she, the moon. He expresses his feelings for Juliet, especially concerning her beauty, with these comparisons. Romeo uses apostrophe, speaking to Juliet although she cannot hear him or respond yet, telling her to refuse to be a servant of the moon. He describes the dress of those maids who serve the moon as being a sickly green color and declares that Juliet ought never to wear it.

Romeo goes on to describe Juliet more, saying,

Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those
stars
As daylight doth a lamp . . . (2.2.15-21)

Now, he personifies the stars, suggesting that they have some business to which they must attend, and so they ask Juliet's eyes, also personified as something which can understand and respond to questions, to take their places in the sky. He wonders if Juliet's eyes and those stars have actually switched places, emphasizing how brightly her eyes seem to shine. He uses a simile to suggest that Juliet's cheeks are so bright that they shame the stars, just like the daylight shames a lamp because it is so very much brighter than the lamp could ever be. In this simile, the lamp is also personified as something which could feel shame.

A couple of the best examples of Shakespeare's use of figurative language to display Romeo's love for Juliet can be found in Act 2, Scene 2. Romeo's speech at the beginning of this scene, upon seeing Juliet at her balcony, employs two metaphors to compare Juliet to celestial bodies. 

The first: "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." With this line, Romeo is comparing Juliet to the sun. Not only does this metaphor describe how brightly Juliet's beauty lights Romeo's world, but it also shows that already Romeo feels that his universe revolves around Juliet. The play was written in the 1590s, and the concept of the sun as the center of the universe was still relatively new, having been discovered by Copernicus at the beginning of the century. 

The second metaphor compares Juliet's eyes to the brightest stars in the sky. He says that if her eyes were to take the place of stars in the heavens, then they would shine so brightly that the birds would be confused and believe it to be daytime. 

From these strong metaphors and Romeo's passionate dialogue in this scene, it is easy to discern that he has fallen hard and fast for the fair Capulet. 

Shakespeare employs various images throughout Romeo and Juliet to accentuate or clarify a particular sentiment or action.

In act 1, scene 1, he uses visual imagery to indicate Prince Escalus's disgust with the actions of the Montague and Capulet factions for their reprehensible behavior. The prince has just intervened in a brawl and partly states:

What, ho! you men, you beasts,
That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,

The image of fire suggests an uncontrollable urge driven by passion and vengeance. Furthermore, "purple fountains" refers to copious amounts of spilt blood. The prince makes it pertinently clear that he has had enough of this unnecessary violence.

In act 1, scene 4, tactile imagery conveys Romeo's contradictory feelings about love. He asks:

Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn.

The fact that love "pricks like thorn" clarifies that Romeo feels that love hurts, and the simile makes this obvious to the reader.

Furthermore, Shakespeare uses the sense of smell to accentuate Juliet's sentiments about Romeo being a Montague—lifelong enemies of her family. In act 2, scene 2, she mentions:

that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet...

The image makes it clear that irrespective of what name one gives a rose, it would still retain its pleasant aroma, just as Romeo would not be any different even if he had another name.

Shakespeare utilizes the sense of sound in act 2, scene 2 when he conveys Romeo's sentiments during the latter's secret conversation with Juliet in the Capulet orchard. When Juliet returns to the balcony to continue their talk, Romeo declares:

How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears!

The image of lovers' voices being "silver-sweet" expresses the value the conversation has for Romeo. He is enthralled and overwhelmed by the moment and compares it to gentle, captivating music—an orchestra of love and affection.

However, in act 1, scene 1, after being rejected by Rosaline, Romeo expresses feelings in direct contrast. He confides in Benvolio and divulges, in part, the following sentiment about love:

What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.

The metaphoric comparison of love to something that tastes bitter (gall) and, at the same time sweet, accentuates Romeo's feelings of dichotomy. At this point, he believes that love can be both pleasant and disgusting at the same time.

Shakespeare loved using rich sensory imagery and does so lavishly in this play. For instance, when Romeo first sees Juliet, it's not enough for him to say she's beautiful. He describes her visually as bright like a jewel, brighter than a torch, a person who stands out in her brightness against others. The rest of the room seems like "the cheek of night" (dark) in contrast. This shows how, to Romeo, Juliet stands out and sparkles:

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear ...
 (I, v)

Later Romeo dwells again on Juliet's brightness, wanting us to visualize her as much brighter than the stars in heaven, a person who would so light up the night sky that the birds would think it was morning and start to sing. This is a powerful image: we now associate Juliet with bright light and the sun:

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night (II, ii)

Shakespeare uses a more complex set of images to convey Juliet's mixed emotions when she learns that Romeo, now her husband and the man she loves, has killed Tybalt, a cousin she loves. Juliet juxtaposes opposing images to show the mix of love and anger warring in her soul, calling Romeo

Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! (III, ii)

A dove is an emblem of love and peace--and Romeo is that to Juliet. A raven is a bird of prey--and now that Romeo has killed Tybalt, he is also that to her. Likewise, a wolf is an animal that preys on others, which is how Romeo seems to her for what he has down, but he is also a "lamb," to her, gentle and loving. (She will come down on Romeo's side when her first shock passes.)

She also likens Romeo to stars and offers a beautiful image of him, after death cut "out in little stars" that hang in the night sky and make heaven so beautiful that people fall in love with night:

Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night (III, ii)

Juliet believes that love should not be stopped because of what a person's last name is. In act 2, scene 1, she compares a person's name to the name of a rose and says that names mean nothing.  In fact, she uses a metaphor and says, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other word would smell as sweet" (II.i.85-86). Basically, she says that rose won't change its shape or color if it merely changes its name; hence, names shouldn't matter when falling in love with someone. Romeo's views on love are metaphorically compared to a bird's weightless flight after Juliet asks how he scaled the walls of her yard: "With love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls,/ For stony limits cannot hold love out" (II.i.108-109). Here, he suggests that no matter what obstacle comes his way, love will provide a way for him to accomplish its desires. Finally, Juliet puts her foot down on what is most important to her when she says that he should not waste each other's time if he is not serious about loving her. She tells him to let her be if he is just playing with her and not seeking a full commitment in marriage. Once that commitment is solidified legally, though, Juliet would proclaim with a simile, "My bounty is as boundless as the sea,/ My love as deep" (II.i.175-176). This scene, as well as the throughout the whole play, is saturated with metaphors and similes about their views on love. Just point anywhere on the page and you can find a quote about their views on love being presented through figurative language. :)

Romeo describes his unrequited love for Rosaline to his kinsman, Benvolio, in Act I, Scene 1.  He says,

She'll not be hit
With Cupid's arrow.  She hath Dian's wit,
And, in strong proof of chastity well armed,
From love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed (I.1.216-219).

He means that Roasline refuses to fall in love (which would happen if she were hit with the arrow of Cupid, the god of love).  Continuing the mythological allusions, Romeo says Rosaline is as chaste and clever as Diana.  Rosaline's heart simply cannot be touched by the arrows of love.  In fact, she has sworn to be a virgin forever, like the goddess Diana.  That his love remains unrequited makes Romeo utterly miserable.

Juliet describes romantic love in her balcony scene in Act II, Scene 2.  She says,

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse they name,
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet (2.2.36-39).

Juliet's love is so strong that she is prepared to ask Romeo to give up his identity to be with her, or, if he is unwilling to do so, she will swear her love to him and give up her identity as a Capulet.  This romantic love becomes the most important thing to both of them, more important than friends or family honor and loyalty.  The fact that Juliet is willing to give up all she knows to be with Romeo is quite powerful.

Friar Lawrence also has a general love for everyone, and he wishes for peace and for the end of all feuding and violence.  When Romeo approaches the Friar with his wishes to marry Juliet, the Friar eventually agrees, saying, "this alliance may so happy prove / To turn your households' rancor to pure love" (II.3.98-99).  Friar Lawrence hopes this act of love between Romeo and Juliet will compel their families to stop their fighting, and he marries the couple out of his love for all humankind and his love of peace.

The imagery used in this play, in particular the imagery found in the dialogue of Romeo and Juliet themselves, is effective in illustrating themes of love and destiny. Romeo and Juliet describe one another with imagery related to the sun, moon and stars, emphasizing the "star-crossed lovers" themes with images that reflective timeless, eternal qualities of celestial bodies. The emphasis on the imagery of day and night also reiterates the theme of urgency and the importance of time (which ultimately causes hasty decisions and missed communication, leading to the lovers' untimely deaths).

While Romeo describes Juliet in terms related to the sun and brightness, Juliet's descriptions of Romeo often relate to night, darkness, the moon and stars. When Romeo comes to see her by climbing the wall of the orchard, he begins to swear his love by the moon, and she interrupts him and says "swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable." She is also hinting that she does not want to see him in secret, and would like for them to be able to be together openly, in the light of day. Yet this is impossible, due to the family feud, and they accept the necessary secrecy of their love.

Juliet also describes Romeo in terms of the night sky when she awaits his arrival on the night of their planned elopement, in her famous soliloquy of Act III that begins "Gallop apace, ye fiery-footed steeds." She mentions Phoebus and Phaeton ("such a driver as Phaeton would whip you to the west"), characters from mythology, and this suggests she is looking at constellations in the sky. She refers to night as a "sober-suited matron all in black" and a comforting maternal presence (unlike her own parents, who forbid her to see Romeo). Since their families are unsupportive, the lovers must rely upon nature to protect them. This theme continues in this speech, and she personifies the night saying "Give me my Romeo," and she says that upon Romeo's death she wants the night (its darkness related to the realm of death) to "cut him out in little stars" so that "all the world will be in love with night."

There is a great deal of imagery in the speech of Juliet, and in many of the other characters; it's Shakespeare, after all! A fair amount of the imagery central to this play arises from the famous phrase used in the prologue, "star-crossed lovers." This image refers to the idea of fate and romance, the belief that fate can intervene in our lives and affect what happens to us, but also that love is a mystical force that draws power from the universe. "Star-crossed" is sometimes said to refer to astrology, and the lovers' suitability for each other may be affected by their respective star signs, based upon the beliefs in astrology that were widespread un Shakespeare's time; but it also means that the timing of their relationship and difficulty of their family situations means their love is cursed. In keeping with this haunting idea of a star-crossed love affair, stars are a frequent image in the play.

The imagery of stars, the moon and night feature prominently in the words of Juliet, whereas Romeo tends to refer to the sun when he speaks of Juliet, as with "what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun." Day and night function as opposites, and also complementary forces (suggesting Romeo and Juliet are two halves of a whole), but also emphasize the importance of time: the speed with which these two lovers become inseparably bound, and the urgency surrounding their situation, because they are forbidden to see each other due to the family feud.

Juliet chides Romeo not to swear by the moon ("the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb"), because it is too changeable and fickle. She uses the imagery of night and stars to speak of Romeo as she awaits him one night in her famous "Gallop apace" monologue: 

Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Played for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.

In this quote, night is a maternal, soothing presence. The night is protective in this time of danger when the lovers are worried about being discovered. Juliet feels that the night is helping keep Romeo safe:

Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back.

But the light of stars reminds her of Romeo:

Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night...