SOURCE: "Collins's Influence at the Turn of the Century," in Poor Collins: His Life, His Art, and His Influence, Cornell, 1937, pp. 256-68.

In the following essay, Ainsworth considers Collins's influence on William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey.

In the last years of the century … Collins made his first appeal to Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, young and significant poets of the new romantic generation. In the works of all three poets there is definite evidence of his influence, a force which they were never to outgrow. At various times in his career Wordsworth spoke favorably of Collins. He showed considerable interest in Dyce's edition of the poet, and Dyce apparently consulted him on several points. He was particularly concerned with the Highland Ode and definitely repudiated the version in Bell's copy (the 1788 anonymous edition). He writes January 12, 1827:

You are at perfect liberty to declare that you have...