Swedish Poetry 1
NOBEL LAUREATES Sweden may have had a relatively
large number of poets winning the Nobel prize, and this could be explained to some extent by the fact that it is the Swedish Academy that selects the laureates. But it should also be seen as recognition that poetry has long enjoyed the status of an important genre within our literature. The poetry of Pär Lagerkvist would evolve from the expressionism of his youth to reconciliation in his old age. Harry Martinson’s epic poem Aniara remains one the most popular and controversial Swedish books of the twentieth century. The global popularity of the work of Tomas Tranströmer, so convincingly demonstrated when he was awarded the Nobel Prize as recently as 2011, bears witness to the power and literary force poetry retains in Sweden. SWEDISH POETRY 24