It's
generally thought that the parts about
God in
Paradise Lost are really
boring, but for a reason.
Imagine that you are a pious, blind man in the 17th century, you fear god. Now, tell me, would you be wanting Him to be cracking jokes, would you want to be the butt of Gods jokes? Or what if you didn't laugh at God's jokes? Would you goto hell?
Also, Milton was generally thought of as being all caught up on his reading, meaning he had read most everything that someone could read (before he went blind that is). His literary allusions had literary allusions. Impressive stuff.