Revolution is the Pod

In Emily Dickinson's poem, "Revolution is the Pod", she describes that in order for liberty to remain intact it must be tested every so often by revolution. I believe she makes a very good point. Just as Emily describes, excellence can only be a product after revolution has taken place. She goes on to say that in order to see if liberty is still intact revolution, "shakes it for Test if it be dead". I believe that this is true of many things in life. Some of the biggest changes and social movements that support liberty have come out of revolutions small and large. One of the largest of these revolutions was the Civil War. So many times we can overlook the changes that need to be made in the world. In the case of the Civil War the South was refusing to acknowledge the liberty of a whole race of people. It took a revolution of enormous size to make the country as a whole come together and realize the capacity it had for being a better place. In Emily's poem revolution is the pod and excellence is the bloom. Only from revolution can one grow into something more excellent. In the second stanza Dickinson goes on to say that if it were not for the fall, or time of change, the summer would be, "the Entomber of itself". I think what she is trying to say here is that if you never go through a time of change or revolution then you will be your own self destruction. She goes on to say that the same goes for liberty. If liberty is not challenged and defended every so often it will be forgotten and die. To Dickinson liberty is not something that can be left and forgotten about. It must be something that is defended and honored and revised as the times change. I think this is an accurate description of what the United States was going through with the Civil War.