"In Ragas of Longing, Sam Solecki offers the first book-length study of Michael Ondaatje's poetry and its place within his overall 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. It also includes close readings of Ondaatje's monographs on Leonard Cohen and Edwin Muir, the Scots poet and critic."--Jacket.