After Election

The day's sharp strife is ended now,     Our work is done, God knoweth how!     As on the thronged, unrestful town     The patience of the moon looks down,     I wait to hear, beside the wire,     The voices of its tongues of fire.     Slow, doubtful, faint,they seem at first:     Be strong, my heart, to know the worst!     Hark! there the Alleghanies spoke;     That sound from lake and prairie broke,     That sunset-gun of triumph rent     The silence of a continent!     That signal from Nebraska sprung,     This, from Nevada's mountain tongue!     Is that thy answer, strong and free,     O loyal heart of Tennessee?     What strange, glad voice is that which calls     From Wagner's grave and Sumter's walls?     From Mississippi's fountain-head     A sound as of the hisoh's tread!     There rustled freedom's Charter Oak!     In that wild burst the Ozarks spoke!     Cheer answers cheer from rise to set     Of sun. We have a country yet!     The praise, O God, be thine alone!     Thou givest not for bread a stone;     Thou hast not led us through the night     To blind us with returning light;     Not through the furnace have we passed,     To perish at its mouth at last.     O night of peace, thy flight restrain!     November's moon, be slow to wane!     Shine on the freedman's cabin floor,     On brows of prayer a blessing pour;     And give, with full assurance blest,     The weary heart of Freedom rest