As if some little arctic flower...

As if some little arctic flower,
Upon the polar hem,
Went wandering down the latitudes,
Until it puzzled came
To continents of summer,
To firmaments of sun,
To strange, bright crowds of flowers,
And birds of foreign tongue!
I say, as if this little flower
To Eden wandered in--
What then? Why, nothing, only
Your inference therefrom!

-Emily Dickinson

http://www.poetry-archive.com/d/as_if_some_little_arctic_flower.html

When I first read this poem, I couldn't help but personify the little flower she speaks of. I actually pictured a little arctic flower, I gave it a cornflowery color, travelling down the latitudes closer towards the equator. Hotter and hotter. I figured that all the arctic flower has seen is white. No other beings, perhaps no other flowers either.

Emily takes the solitary flower from the Arctic frost, and puts it in the middle of all the action. "To the continents of summer." The flower has never known what summer is. Blazin' heat on your back. Trips to the beach, where the water is warm, not frozen. Running around with shorts and t-shirts on, free as a bird. "To firmaments of sun". It feels the power of the sun for the first time.

"To strange, bright crowds of flowers, And birds of foreign tongue!"

Is this what it's like to be a traveller to a foreign country? It's more than a flower. Flowers can not transport themselves to vast lands. Emily talks about people. People who know certain cultures and temperatures then go to another land where everything is opposite. (they drive on the left side of the road in Europe. the driver's seat is on the right side of the car)

"What then? Why, nothing, only Your inference therefrom!" - When I read this, I feel as if Emily is talking to us as if'd we'd ask, "what then?" or "ok, so what's the point of you telling us this?" Then she tells us "why nothing, only Your inference therefrom!" or "nothing. it's just for you to learn and think about. it's whatever you want to make of it" She's letting us take meaning out of this poem. Sometimes we are the arctic flower that comes from nowhere and ventures into a new zone we are unfamiliar with. Sometimes we are the birds flying around the strange, bright flowers we're used to, when suddenly we spot a new flower that is unlike any we've seen before.