Paracelsus was hard, but Sordello was incomprehensible.

Sordello, published in 1840, is the most obscure of all Browning's poems, and for many years blinded critics to the poet's genius.

[Footnote 11: Sordello was a famous Provençal poet; with whose writings the world has but lately been made acquainted through the researches of M. Raynouard, in his Choix des Poésies des Troubadours, &c.] [Footnote 12: "Fresco smeraldo in l'ora che si fiacca."

Provençal became the literary language of the noble classes and an Italian school of troubadours arose, of whom Sordello is the most remarkable figure.

Browning's Sordello is obscure because he knows too much about mediaeval Italian history; Donne's Anniversary because he is too deeply read in mediaeval scholasticism and speculation.