I think that Poem 16 offers up to the audience a wide range of thought and analysis.The poem is about relationships.The relationship between man and woman, and how there is a controlling factor within the relationship.The poet however is speaking about the change in control in power, or at least this is what I perceive.She she`s the relationship as a power shift, an uncanny relationship that is quite the opposite of what the typical male to female relationship was during her time period.I hope to make this clear further in my analysis.
I believe that clearly, our poet says, "We are the Flower--Thou the Sun!" meaning that women are the flower, and the male is symbolized by the sun, she includes the exclamation point [!] for those who don`t believe it.The Sun is masculine, not only with her speaking to "Sir" as the receiver, but clearly uses the masculine "his" to comment upon the display of the "golden" orb as he completes his "walk" across her Amherst town from East to West.
Eden is clearly the magnificent metaphor behind Poem 16.No doubt she saw her Amherst town as endemic.I am reminded of her letters to Abiah Root when Emily Dickinson was even younger at age 1, thirteen years earlier than this poem.In Letter 9 she wrote, "I have lately come to the conclusion that I am Eve, alias Mrs. Adam.You know there is no account of her death in the Bible, and why is not I Eve?If you find any statements which you think likely to prove the truth of the case, I wish you would send them to me without delay."
To lay emphasis on this, Emily Dickinson wrote: "If you find any statements which you think likely to prove the truth of the case..." I would suggest, as per Emily Dickinson's thoughts to Abiah Root, we look at her "statements," in particular, Poem 16. To learn more about the poetry look here - thepoetrytrust.org/poetry