''Non Serviam'' is a 1945 poetry collection by the Swedish writer

Gunnar Ekelöf Bengt Gunnar Ekelöf (15 September 1907 – 16 March 1968) was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958 and was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958. He won a number of prize ...

. The title comes from the Christian phrase "

Non serviam ''Non serviam'' is Latin for "I will not serve". Today "non serviam" is also used as a motto by a number of political, cultural, and religious groups to express their wish to rebel. It may be used to express a radical view against established b ...

", which is Latin for "I will not serve" and is attributed to

Lucifer The most common meaning for Lucifer in English is as a name for the Devil in Christian theology. He appeared in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah and before that in the Vulgate (the late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bib ...

. In the poems Ekelöf criticises the contemporary political climate of Sweden; in the titular poem he describes himself as "a stranger in this land", and in the satirical poem "Till de folkhemske" he ironizes the concept of

Folkhemmet ''Folkhemmet'' (, ) is a political concept that played an important role in the history of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish welfare state. It is also sometimes used to refer to the long period between 1932 and 1976 when the Soc ...

. Non Serviam includes three of Ekelöf's greatest poems: ''

Samothrace Samothrace (also known as Samothraki; , ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. It is a municipality within the Evros regional unit of Thrace. The island is long, in size and has a population of 2,596 (2021 census). Its main industries ...

'', ''Gymnosofisten'' ( the Gymnosophist) and ''

Absentia animi ''In Absentia'' is the seventh studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released on 24 September 2002. The album marked several changes for the band, with it being the first with new drummer Gavin Harrison and the fir ...

''. A sculpture by Ernst Nordin, with the name Non Serviam, stands at

Malmskillnadsgatan Malmskillnadsgatan ( Swedish: "The Ridge Dividing Street") is a 650-metre long street in central Stockholm, Sweden. It stretches northward from the Brunkebergstorg square over Hamngatan; crosses Mäster Samuelsgatan and Oxtorgsgatan; passes ...

25 in Stockholm since 1980, and features the first four lines of Ekelöf's poem.

References

{{reflist 1945 poetry books Swedish poetry collections Albert Bonniers Förlag books