author
William Collins
1721–1759
A gifted lyric poet of the 18th century, he helped bridge the polished style of the Augustan age and the feeling-rich imagination that would later shape Romantic poetry. Though his body of work is small, his odes have given him a lasting place in English literature.
1 Audiobook
The Poetical Works of William Collins; With a Memoir
by William Collins
About the author
Born in Chichester on December 25, 1721, he was educated at Winchester College and later at Magdalen College, Oxford. He published early, including Persian Eclogues in 1742, and became known above all for Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegorical Subjects (1746).
Critics have long valued him as one of the finest lyric poets of the mid-18th century. His verse keeps the formal control of Neoclassical poetry but reaches toward the mood, imagination, and emotional intensity more often linked with the Romantic period.
His later years were troubled by serious mental illness, and he died in Chichester on June 12, 1759, at just 37. Even with a relatively small output, his poetry remained influential, and readers still return to his odes for their musical language and striking feeling.