Non Serviam

Non Serviam is a poetry collection published in 1945 by the Swedish writer Gunnar Ekelöf. The title comes from the Christian phrase "non serviam", Latin for "I will not serve", which is attributed to Lucifer.

In these poems Ekelöf criticises the political climate of Sweden in his time. In the titular poem he describes himself as "a stranger in this land", while in the satirical poem "To the Folkhemske" he ironises the concept of Folkhemmet, the "people's home" ideal promoted by Swedish social democracy.

The book includes three of the author's most celebrated poems: "Samothrace", "The Gymnosophist" and "Absentia animi". Since 1980, a sculpture by Ernst Nordin bearing the name Non Serviam has stood at Malmskillnadsgatan 25 in Stockholm, reproducing the first four lines of Ekelöf's poem.