His side of Parnassus was thronged.
It was quite otherwise with his brother-poet.

Only a few clear-eyed persons cared to read _Paracelsus_, which appeared in 1835.

_Strafford_, Browning's first drama, had a little more vogue; it was acted for a while.

When _Sordello_, that strange child of genius, was born in 1840, those who tried to read its first pages declared they were incomprehensible.

It seems that critics in those days had either less intelligence than we have, or were more impatient and less attentive, for not only _Sordello_ but even _In Memoriam_ was said to be exceedingly obscure.
Then, from 1841 to 1846, Browning published at intervals a series of varied poems and dramas, under the title of _Bells and Pomegranates_.
These, one might imagine, would have grasped the heart of any public which had a care for poetry.