The Dream of Gerontius
Another reason why it was slow to become popular in England was that the ideas in the poem were from the Roman Catholic teaching (John Henry Newman was a Roman Catholic Cardinal).  This meant that a lot of Anglican cathedrals did not want it to be performed, so changes were made to the text.  This new version was used for performances at the Three Choirs Festival until 1910.  It quickly became popular in England.  It was performed in Chicago and New York in 1903, and then in many other cities.