Theodore Mischel
"Bad Art as the 'Corruption of Consciousness'".
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 21, No. 3. (Mar.,
1961), p. 396
For Collingwood regards the difference between good and
bad art simply and solely as the difference between "truthful" and "corrupted
consciousness." But if "truthfulness" to one's feelings, "sincerity," "candor,"
are understood in the usual sense - what I.A. Richards calls "the ordinary
'business' sense in which a man is insincere when he deliberately attempts
to deceive, and sincere when his statements and acts are governed by 'the
best of his knowledge and belief,'" - then there is little reason to doubt
that the poetry of Ella Wheeler Wilcox is a sincere expression both of
her feelings and of those of many of her readers. But there is every reason
to doubt that this makes her a good poet.