November 4, 2025
Revolution is the Pod
Systems rattle from
When the Winds of Will are stirred
Excellent is
Bloom
Revolution as a seed pod. Sometimes, pods will split open violently to disperse seeds
(dehiscence, which also refers to the splitting open of a previously sutured wound). Systems are “rattling” from
them - seeds are the systems, but this makes me think of rattle-y mechanical systems, like the props on old fighter
planes. The Winds of Will are the winds of desire. The bloom (mobilization) is successful.
But except its Russet Base
Every Summer be
The Entomber of itself,
So of Liberty
-
Russet is a brownish-red - Autumn leaves. Summer is enclosed, and puts everything except
Autumn in the tomb. This includes all flowering plants - and Liberty?
Left inactive
on the Stalk
All its Purple fled
Revolution shakes it for
Test if it be dead.
Liberty
is left inactive on the stalk - it has not played a part in this explosive seeding, this Revolution. Its “Purple” is
gone - This doesn’t mean that mere Royalty or Nobility have fled. It takes a more expansive meaning in her work,
like sublimity, greatness, or magnificence (see J776 - The Color of a Queen is This). But, safe to say, good things
have fled. Revolution has killed Liberty.
I like how Dickinson analogizes Revolution as a natural process
that obeys natural laws and is not exempt from them. Revolution is like the flowering period, Spring and Summer.
Revolution is fated to occur, but is also fated to end. If she disapproves of Revolution, it is not because it
happens in the first place - she accepts its natural inevitability as part of a cycle - but rather, because
it tramples things she values (Liberty).