| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Flood-Tide | | By Margaret (Junkin) Preston (1820–1897) |
| | | TO every artist, howsoe’er his thought | |
| Unfolds itself before the eyes of men,— | |
| Whether through sculptor’s chisel, poet’s pen, | |
| Or painter’s wondrous brush,—there comes, full fraught | |
| With instant revelation, lightning-wrought, | 5 |
| A moment of supremest heart-swell, when | |
| The mind leaps to the tidal crest, and then | |
| Sweeps on triumphant to the harbor sought. | |
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| Wait, eager spirit, till the topping waves | |
| Shall roll their gathering strength in one, and lift | 10 |
| From out the swamping trough thy galleon free; | |
| Mount with the whirl, command the rush that raves | |
| A maelstrom round; then proudly shoreward drift, | |
| Rich-freighted as an Indian argosy. | | | | |
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