Swedish Poetry 1
LOVE POETRY Sexual passion and the erotic have ty
pically been subjects that Swedish poetry has shied away from. Some of the exceptions to be found are in the work of writers whose poetry would later be subject to a critical revaluation. This applies in particular to Stina Aronson, whose Tolv hav (Twelve Seas) forms part of a trilogy that depicts her love affair with Artur Lundkvist, the writer and member of the Swedish Academy. The collection was considered so erotically explicit that it had to be published under a pseudonym. Both this book and Rut Hillarp’s poetry written in the 1940s give expression to an unconventional sexuality that shifts between dominance and submission. Recently republished, the work of both these writers has won the admiration of many younger readers, and they are now considered to be major pioneers of an autobiographical way of writing. SWEDISH POETRY 20