SOURCE: Cobham, Rhonda. “The Texts of Wilson Harris's Eternity to Season.” World Literature Written in English 22, no. 1 (spring 1983): 27–38.

In the following essay, Cobham examines the evolution of Eternity to Season from its initial publication in 1954 through its final edition in 1978, marking technical changes, reorganization of lines and phrases, omissions, and additions.

The first publication by Wilson Harris to appear under the title Eternity to Season was a small pamphlet containing three poems: “Troy,” “Behring Straits” and “Amazon.” The pamphlet appeared in 1952 and was privately published by Harris himself.¹ Between 1952 and 1954 a number of new poems using related images were published in Kyk-over-al.² Eventually this new material was combined with the original three poems in a larger collection, also called Eternity to Season, which was brought out in Guyana as part of the Miniature Poets Series in 1954. In 1978, a new revised version of the collection was issued in London...