Like burnt-out torches by sick man's bed

which technique is being used

After doing some online searching, I've found that this question refers to figurative language. It is not an incomplete question, it was just missing the context for people to be able to understand it. Now that I know what it is about, I can safely

Simile.

Explanation:

In the phrase "Like burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed" we have something being compared to something else. Even though we don't know what it is, we know it is compared to burnt-out torches. The comparison was made with the help of a support word, "like". Its purpose it to attribute one or more qualities of a burnt-out torch to something else by saying they are similar. Comparisons that use support words are called simile. They are a very common figure of speech along with metaphors, with the difference that metaphors also make comparisons, but without using support words.

which is the following what are you asking?