Ragas of Longing

'Lucid, provocative, and near-encyclopedic in its handling of detail, Ragas of Longing attends expertly to the flux, turbulence, and musicality of Michael Ondaatje's poetry.' -- Ajay Heble, School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph 'For more than thirty-five years Michael Ondaatje has been a major poet on the world stage ... Ragas of Longing introduces readers to the astonishing complexity and deep vulnerability that are the marks of his poetic achievements.' -- David Staines, Department of English, University of Ottawa

Solecki suggests that Ondaatje's poetry can be seen as constituting a relatively unified personal canon that has evolved with each book building on its predecessor while simultaneously preparing the groundwork for the following volume.

In Ragas of Longing, Sam Solecki offers the first book-length study of Michael Ondaatje's poetry and its place in his body of work. Relating the poetry to various poetic traditions from classical Tamil to postmodern, Solecki presents a chronological critical reading of Ondaatje's six volumes of poems. Among the study's concerns are the relationship between the poet's life and work, his poetic debts and development, his theory of poetry, and his central themes. Also present are close readings of Ondaatje's monographs on Leonard Cohen and Edwin Muir, the Scots' poet and critic.

Solecki suggests that Ondaatje's poetry can be seen as constituting a relatively unified personal canon that has evolved with each book building on its predecessor while simultaneously preparing the groundwork for the following volume. The author argues that Ondaatje's writing has a narrative unity and trajectory - a figure in the carpet - determined by crucial events in his life, especially the early breakup of his family and his subsequent exile from his father and place of birth. The result is a body of major poetry whose vision is post-Christian, postmodern and, despite an often humourous tone, fundamentally tragic.