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The title of the book, The Great Unconventional Elegiac Tradition: A Study of Gray, Arnold, Rilke, the Welsh Hiraeth and the Poetry of the Khasi National Bard, Soso Tham, immediately raises several questions concerning the elegiac tradition and the three elegiac poets, the Welsh concept of hiraeth, Soso Tham— the Khasi national bard— and the relation between all of them. The book, therefore, is essentially a study of three literary subjects at once. Hiraeth is used as a passe-partout, a master key to unfold the much-proclaimed treasure trove of Tham’s poetry and examine with a critical eye what kind of wealth it contains. But because hiraeth is fundamentally an emotion of mourning, the study turns its attention to the elegiac tradition and undertakes a comparative analysis of Tham’s major work, as well as some of his shorter works, with the elegies of Gray, Arnold, Rilke and the Welsh songs of lamentation.
