This is interesting, but…ok.

That’s why this stuff finds its way into high school curricula, while very little of anything before 1800 does. (Anecdote: I once tried to read Paradise Lost in high school. Didn’t make it past the second page. Because: TOO HARD.)

I read Paradise Lost when I was 10. Other than a few words and some references I didn’t know, I understood it fine. It is not that difficult a work. The language is a bit fusty, but not indecipherable.

Tolkien’s Silmarillion which I also read around that time is a much harder read, in my opinion.

I know I am not average, but I just don’t think that many works of the Western canon are all that difficult. Many of them were the Twilights of their day, after all.