South Street Seaport Museum hosts ‘How to Read a Poem’ with Pulitzer winner Paul Muldoon

For readers who have ever felt intimidated by poetry, the South Street Seaport Museum is offering a chance to see the art form in a new light.

The museum will present How to Read a Poem on Feb. 4 at 5:30 p.m. at 213 Water St., featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon. The interactive discussion invites participants to explore poems published that same week in literary journals and magazines, focusing not only on interpretation but also on how poetry continues to evolve. Tickets are $45, and advance registration is required.

Rather than approaching poetry as a puzzle to be solved, the session encourages open conversation about language, meaning and context. Attendees will be guided through selected works and invited to reflect on where poetry has been — and where it may be headed — as an art form. Poems for discussion will be provided, and no prior experience with poetry is necessary.

Since launching in 2023, How to Read a Poem has been presented at literary festivals and universities around the world. This winter’s New York edition will take place in the first-floor gallery of the A.A. Thomson & Co. building, offering an intimate setting for the evening’s exchange of ideas.

Muldoon brings decades of literary experience to the program. He has served as the Howard G. B. Clark Professor at Princeton University for nearly 40 years, teaching creative writing, Irish literature, songwriting and translation. His academic career has also included appointments as Oxford Professor of Poetry and Ireland Professor of Poetry, along with teaching posts at Cambridge University, the University of St. Andrews, the University of East Anglia and Lancaster University.

A prolific writer, Muldoon has published 15 major collections of poetry in the United States, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Moy Sand and Gravel and Joy in Service on Rue Tagore, named a New York Times Notable Book in 2024. He has also edited numerous poetry anthologies, most recently Scanty Plot of Ground: A Book of Sonnets.

With How to Read a Poem, the South Street Seaport Museum aims to demystify poetry and invite both longtime readers and newcomers to engage with the form in a relaxed, welcoming environment — proving that understanding poetry is less about having the “right” answer and more about learning to listen, question and connect.

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