He attained distinction in Swedish letters, his first work to attract wide attention being his Ode on the Birth of the Prince-Royal Gustavus Adolphus (1778).

He was appointed private secretary to Gustavus III in 1788 and stood high in the regard of that monarch.

His odes on the martial achievements of the Swedes were among his most popular productions, and his tragedies Odin (1790) and Virginia (1802) were highly successful.

He attempted all forms of poetry save the epic.

He was a bulwark of French Classicism against the attacks of the Romantic Phosphorists.