A Reading Of Derek Walcott's 'Love After Love'

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

The poet Derek Walcott died on Friday at the age of 87. He is regarded as one of the greatest poets in the English language. In 1992, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Walcott also wrote plays. And he was a painter. He died at his home on the island of St. Lucia, a place that figured prominently in his work. It's where he published his first poem in a local newspaper at the tender age of 14. We end this hour with one of Walcott's poems, "Love After Love," as read by actor Tom Hiddleston.

(SOUNDBITE OF POEM, "LOVE AFTER LOVE")

TOM HIDDLESTON: (Reading) The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror. And each will smile at the other's welcome, and say sit here, eat. You will love again the stranger who was yourself. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes. Peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.

(SOUNDBITE OF GEORGE WINSTON'S "CAROUSEL 2")

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Derek Walcott's poem "Love After Love" read by Tom Hiddleston. Mr. Walcott died on Friday at the age of 87. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Lulu Garcia-Navarro. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.