PRAYER. TO THE PARCAE. Hannah Brand Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T42452 K041482.000 Brand, Hannah, 1754-1821. Plays and poems: by Miss Hannah Brand. Norwich printed by Beatniffe and Payne; and sold by Messrs. F. and C. Rivington; and Messrs. Elmsley and Bremner, London 1798 pp. 422-424. xv,[1],424p.; 8⁰.

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PRAYER . TO THE PARCAE . Inexorable Triad ! tell us ! where , In what vast Antre , or what Cypress grove , Your gloomy Altars trembling Mortals rear ; And what the hallow'd Sacrifice ye love ? If ever your stern breasts relent at tears , If ye have hearts that sighs can comprehend , If ye can sympathize in human cares , Propitious to our humble suit attend ! Two Sisters are we , who in life's rough way , Full early enter'd 'neath a baneful Star , Together , though unbless'd with one bright ray , We bear the hardships of its constant war . Companions still , the same our hopes and woes , Sweet counsel seek we in each other's mind ; And the soft green , where harrass'd souls repose , Each finds within her Sister's bosom shrin'd . No dearer Friendship , and no separate Joy , Has e'er estrang'd us from each other's heart , No Strife has ever mingled its alloy , In Good , or Ill , each had a Sister's part . Together we retrace our sorrows past , With that sweet interest only Sisters feel , Hope's bright'ning beam upon the future cast , Or present Ills participating heal . Such , ye stern Parcae ! are your Suppliants now ; Seeking Protection from one dreaded Ill : We ask not Wealth , nor Honours for our brow ; Unmurmuring have we liv'd without them still . Nor do we ask exemption from all Grief ; Patient we bow to an o'erwhelming share ; There is but One , — for which there's no relief , But One — we have not Fortitude to bear . If erring Mortals , ignorant , and blind , May , sinless , deprecate the Grief they fear , Be our petition in your memory shrin'd ! — Respect the sacred prevalence of prayer CLOTHO ! thy Distaff at thy pleasure fill ; — E'en though the flax with rugged knots be cross'd ; LACHESIS ! draw our Threads together still , We heed not , whether long , or short thou draw'st ; When , to their length , th' appointed Threads are spun , Them , to the fatal Shears together guide : Swiftly , O ATROPOS ! thy task be done , THE SISTER THREADS , AT THE SAME STROKE , DIVIDE . ( March , 1796. )