Lines from "Early Rising"

[nonEnglish]

"Thou silent murderer, Sloth, no more
My mind imprison'd keep;
Nor let me waste another hour
With thee, thou felon, Sleep."
More( the writer) sees Sloth as a murderer of time, who keeps the lazy man's mind imprisoned.



Hello again teachers. I need a little help with the first two lines, do you mind?

1. Is it " Sloth, you silent murderer,
No more my mind imprison'd keep" ,
or
" Sloth, you silent murderer no more,
My mind imprison'd keep" ?

2. Please explain "my mind imprison'd keep".


And, generally, do poems follow grammar?

Thank you very much.

[Tdol]

It's " Sloth, you silent murderer,
No more my mind imprison'd keep"
It means that when you slothful, your mind isn't working, isn't free- the person wants to break away and recover their powers of imagination, etc.

Poems do follow grammar, but not all the time- they are far more lkely to break away from conventional grammar than most prose. This, however, is quite old English and probably was easier to follow in the time it was written. The word order is different from today, but you will still find it used for rhetorical effect.

[nonEnglish]

I'm grateful for your help.

Shouldn't "imprison'd keep" be "imprison's keep" ?

Thanks in advance.




Got to say Thanks Again to you, Temico.

[Temico]

Thou silent murderer, Sloth, no more
My mind imprison'd keep;

The above quote can be re-written as, "Thou(=You) Sloth,silent murderer, keep my mind imprisioned no more"
The use of "imprisioned" is correct.