Their own souls rose and cried Alarum when they heard the sudden wail Of stricken freedom and along the gale Saw her eternal banner quivering wide.

The lines evoke a moment when ordinary people are inwardly awakened by a public crisis: “their own souls” act like sentries, sounding an “alarum” at the “wail / Of stricken freedom.” Freedom is personified as a wounded figure whose “eternal banner” still flies, trembling but visible “along the gale,” suggesting that even under assault the ideal remains present and rallying. The passage frames political liberty not as an abstract doctrine but as something felt viscerally—heard as a cry, seen as a banner—and it implies a moral duty to respond. The tone is martial and prophetic, turning private conscience into collective mobilization.