When reading "I felt a Cleaving in my Mind", it was more than just a short poem. It gave clues as to who Emily was as a person. It showed that she led a very sad life. It was obvious that she was talking about herself, and had mental problems and it showed through out her art form. This poem showed sides that not may people were aware of, but after her life span people came more knowledgeable of it. .
The poem talks about a woman clearly suffering from some type of psychological issues. She was having a spell where she could not put together her ideas. To show the extreme, she uses the job of a seamstress that cannot sew two pieces of fabric together to match. She is unable to make a clear connection between one thought and the thought following right behind.
In the second stanza it describes how she tried to focus and put sense of her thoughts. Because of her mental disability it was blocking her from connecting her thoughts. No matter how strong her efforts were they could not connect them. The poem says they ravelled out of reach like balls on the floor. When one thinks of balls on the floor, you think of them being scattered out, and not completely a whole picture. The balls are representing her thoughts all over her brain and the floor being the object that is open for room to let them scatter.
Looking up the word cleaving, it had two meanings. One meant to split or fall apart with a feel of violence. The other means to stick or to cling to. It is obvious that the speaker was using the first meaning even though she meant the second meaning. It was kind of like she was trying to get her "split" thoughts to "stick" together.
My views were quite similar. Upon my first reading, I saw a woman confused of her own abilities. She could not focus or get her thoughts on the same track. She seemed almost sad but yet aware of her disabilities. .
I felt like Dickinson was using her own like life as to show the experience of being mentally unstable.