Thoughtwriting—in Poetry and Music

Speechwriters compose speeches for others to deliver; speechwritings are speeches composed for this purpose. By thoughtwriters I mean writers who compose texts for others to use in expressing their thoughts (feelings, attitudes). The texts thoughtwriters compose are thoughtwritings. Poets are often plausibly regarded as thoughtwriters, and their poems as thoughtwritings. Music and musicmaking can frequently be understood in an analogous way. This nicely explains much of what counts as the expressive qualities of poetry and music. It also suggests that narrators in poetry and personae in music are far less important than philosophers of literature and music have made them out to be.