God named Love, whose fount Thou art

God named Love, whose fount Thou art. Elizabeth Barrett Browning* (1806-1861).  From The Seraphim, and other poems (1838). This book, besides containing ‘The Sleep’ (see ‘Of all the thoughts of God, that are’* and ‘What would we give to our beloved’*), has a sequence of four hymns. The present text is ‘Hymn I’, entitled ‘A Supplication for Love’. It had nine 4-line stanzas, with an unusual accent in line 1 (‘namèd’) to make up the eight syllables:  God, namèd Love, whose fount Thou art,  Thy crownless Church before Thee stands,With too much hating in her heart,  And too much striving in her hands!  O loving Lord! O slain for love!  Thy blood upon Thy garments came - Inwrap their folds our...