Question

i need help paraphrasing and identifying devices


When I was young and knew no better
I was always wanting to compare this to that:
Hearts might be cold as ice cream cones:
Water shone like flashlights;
Autumn leaves were mustard
On the sky‟s blue china plate.

But now I know different.
Now I know that nothing is like nothing else.
A white plate is a white plate, smooth, glossy;
Snow is another whiteness: not powdery,
Not like wool or silk or feathers,
But like itself, cold, dense, soft,
And yet sometimes hard, sometimes pointed,