The dialogue between the American and Jig in Hills Like White Elephants can be described

The main poetic device used in this poem by Neruda is the metaphor; a metaphor in its simplest form is a figure of speech, it is most commonly used to compare two things not because they are the same, but to add symbolism or mystery, it can be used in many literary works, in this case a poem. In the excerpt shown above, there are various examples of metaphors, the first being "your laughter must raise its foamy cascade", it is obviously a metaphor because laughter is not foamy nor can it cascade, the author uses the metaphor to enrich his poem, giving its readers a colorful scenery to imagine but at the same time the metaphor can be used to express his ideas in such a way that nobody can truly shed the light on the real meaning behind his words but himself, giving him the truest form of liberty of speech which is important considering his situation when writing the poem.