Analysis of I felt a cleaving in my mind

Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)



I felt a cleaving in my mind
   As if my brain had split;
I tried to match it, seam by seam,
   But could not make them fit.

The thought behind I strove to join
   Unto the thought before,
But sequence ravelled out of reach
   Like balls upon a floor.


Scheme XAXA XBXB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1101011 111111 11111111 111111 01011111 100101 1101111 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 252
Words 51
Sentences 3
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 4, 4
Lines Amount 8
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 93
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 01, 2023

15 sec read
242

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. more…

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    Who wrote the 1916 poem "Out, Out—"?
    A Elinor Frost
    B Robert Browning
    C Robert Frost
    D Emily Dickinson