Does тысяча дней not carry the same poetic implication in Russian?
No. Poets like "тысяча лет", "вечность", "века", "столетия" and so on. Larger granules, so to speak.

On the other hand, "тысяча слов", "тысяча дел", "тысяча лиц" в толпе - they mean "очень много" and therefore good to poets.