The national poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, has written a tribute poem for Nelson Mandela, called Madiba, which refers to his years of imprisonment at Robben island,  how he came out smiling after 27 years, and how his widow Graca and former wife Winnie embraced at his memorial service. You can read the poem in full here. Writer Maya Angelou has also released a moving poem, His Day is Done, on behalf of the American people: "Suddenly our world became sombre". 

In the immediate aftermath of the announcement of Mandela's death on Thursday evening, social media allowed poets to express their first reactions, along with countless others across the world. Those responses reflected both the sense of grief, and the immense significance of the passing away of South Africa’s first black president, the man who symbolised the end of apartheid, and the fact that good can triumph, against all the odds.

Lemn Sissay said simply on Twitter: “Madiba Madiba. Goodbye Madiba.”

Raymond Antrobus insisted: "Mandela will never die."

Karen McCarthy Woolf posted a picture of candles and said: “In 1990 my dad took me to meet Nelson Mandela. They both passed in 2013 & I light these candles for them.”

Niall Sullivan, reflecting the fact that the former Robben Island prisoner had been seriously ill for a long time, said: “Sometimes the saddest news approaches us oh so slowly and yet hits us with the impact of a runaway train.”  

Martin Figura said: “I've always thought sacrificing your own life for the good of others is the most noble of qualities. Not many did more.”

There were reminders that Nelson Mandela is said to have taken great strength during his years in prison from the words of the poem 'Invictus', by William Ernest Henley. Here it is in full: 

Invictus