Göran Sonnevi's breakthrough came with the publication of his poem "Om kriget i Vietnam" (On the War in Vietnam) in 1965. Virtually overnight his name became a household word in Sweden, and the poem served there as a catalyst for the debate over U.S. involvement in Vietnam. The nature of his achievement becomes evident when one considers how much time had passed since the genre of poetry had such influence on the general public; to find a precedent one must return to neo-Romanticism and perhaps even to Romanticism. Traditionally, the literary genres most conducive to social criticism are drama and the novel; thus, to a great extent Sonnevi changed the paradigm with "Om kriget i Vietnam." His productivity during the subsequent years shows that, of the poets who came of age in the 1960s, his work arguably ranks as the most influential.

Sonnevi was born on...