There’s something to be said for the “Schoolhouse Rock” approach.
It’s the entertainment vs chore aspect. When teachers present an epic they want you analyze the structure and what does this symbolize and what’s the moral and all these things that distract you from the fact that it’s actually a pretty cool poem with a neat story that somebody really needs to turn into a horror film (daSilva’s film is cool but a bit arthouse). When Maiden performs the song live Dickenson introduces it as what not to do when a bird #$%^s on you, instantly giving you permission to enjoy it, and that makes you listen to it over and over, and eventually you’ll read the liner notes and maybe look up the poem and you read that a few times. It’s really hard to appreciate something you don’t enjoy, especially when you’re young, but we try to teach appreciation without joy.