Producing only a relatively small body of work and plagued by mental illness during his later life, Collins was nevertheless one of the most influential poets of the pre-Romantic later eighteenth century. As portrayed in his odes, his conception of poetry as visionary, even prophetic, inspired many of his immediate successors. Major publications of his works included Persian Eclogues (1742), revised as Oriental Eclogues (1757), Verses Humbly Address'd to Sir Thomas Hanmer: On His Edition of Shakespear's Works (1743), revised as An Epistle: Addrest to Sir Thomas Hanmer, on His Edition of Shakespear's Works (1744), Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegoric Subjects (1747), Ode Occasion'd by the Death of Mr. Thomson (1749), The Passions: An Ode (1750), and An Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland (1788).