Although my soul is thirsty for you, I do not have water to give; Though I’ve sung like a nightingale For all who are thirsty. -Sylvia Plath, “I Do Not Have Water To Give” Although my soul is thirsty for you, I do not have water to give; Though I’ve sung like a nightingale For all who are thirsty. – Sylvia Plath, “I Do Not Have Water To Give” This poem is an example of a thirsting soul, but one that does not have water to give. The poet sings like a nightingale for all who are thirsty–certainly including the reader. And yet she cannot offer what her own heart needs most–love and attention from another human being whose presence would quench her longing with just as much certainty as any physical drink could do. The metaphor in this poem is about love (as it often is in Plath’s work), where there must be two people or nothing at all can happen: ” I am my lover’s soil.” There must be mutuality; otherwise, there will only ever be more thirst and no end to the song of desire coming up.
