Favorite poetic similes and metaphors

Though the Gatomaquia (1634) by Lope de Vega is a moch-epic it has several striking poetic images like Homer's rose fingered dawn.

From III

as golden Phoebus peered his forehead

Over the windows of the rosy East

And lit upon flowers on green fields

in tones of brown sugar.

Here the sun rising from the East casts its rays on a bed of flowers and the ochre color is likened to that of brown sugar, a thing which I had never thought of. Actually the original reads como si azúcar fuera- as if it were sugar- but the idea is the color of unrefined sugar from Cuba available at the time. This image is beautiful and unforced. Original but still part of its genre.

From IV

What can equal the patience of a cat in love

Stuck inside a roof gutter until dawn

Which instead of being greeted by rays of the rising sun

Their foreheads are crowned with freezing icicles?

For without a coat, overcoat, or hat

The sun will great them before they stop pleading

their she-cat’s rigid ears with sorry complaints,

though the sky rain down silver butterflies when it snows.

Here is my favorite image which sees following snowflakes as silver butterflies. Just think of when it snows thicker snow flakes than usual and you'll see what he's getting at. Igual que llueva mariposas de plata cuando nieva. Again this is beautiful and stunning but yet still firmly within the tradition.