Overview

Join Molly Peacock as she discusses a Romantic sonnet, “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley , and a sonnet about romance, “Love Is Not All” by Edna St. Vincent Millay - in-person at 92NY on March 10, 2026, from 6:30–8:00 pm.  

We’ll consider these works not as scholars, but as poets.  

How can we read as writers, for our own purposes? Do we begin with issues of structure, feeling, imagery, or meaning? Can we analyze these sonnets in terms of literary technique—syntax, symbolism, or rhyme? How does a contemporary poet relate to a poet of the past? Do poets read other poets the way family members read one another?  

This lecture will also draw on The Trembling Hand by Mathelinda Nabugodi and Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford, and will include time for audience questions as Peacock considers how she reads like a writer.