I could not drink it, Sweet,

I could not drink it, Sweet,
Till You had tasted first,
Though cooler than the Water was
The Thoughtfulness of Thirst.

      -Fr816, J818, early 1864


The Thoughtfulness of Thirst. What a thoughtful line. Who else but Emily Dickinson could help us appreciate restraint with so much thusness? 

According to Christanne Miller’s notes in “Poems As She Preserved Them” there is another version of this poem in which “Sweet,” at the end of the first line, is replaced by “Sue.”

Dickinson wrote hundreds of passionate letters and poems to Susan Gilbert Dickinson. In 1852, when she and Sue were still college girls, she wrote, “Susie, will you indeed come home next Saturday, and be my own again, and kiss me as you used to?” 

The poem at hand was written some 12 years later. How's that for sustained thirst!

In another poem to Sue, she wrote:

“Sue—forevermore!”
“Sue, you can go or stay—
But there is a limit, Sue—
To any love—nay, but my love for you—”

That poem, like the one at hand, speaks to an unconditional love.

The poems are rarely so straight-forwardly “romantic” in a conventional sense, and are often coded in ambiguity. Changing the word “Sue” to “Sweet” is one way of moving this poem from the explicitly personal to one of general endearment. Not only does the change keep a sense of privacy, it also allows the reader into the poem, as both potential object and subject.

Another way to "code" is to use symbols. Water, for instance, represents literal refreshment, but it's also a symbol of emotional sustenance.

I could not drink it, Sweet,
Till You had tasted first,

This is a poetic way of saying that Emily is putting Sue’s needs first. Her concern is not for satisfying her own thirst (physical or emotional), but her beloved’s.

Though cooler than the Water was
The Thoughtfulness of Thirst.

This contrast highlights the satisfaction in the act of waiting. The “thoughtfulness of thirst” is not just physical longing but care and restraint, a valuing of love over desire.

"Thirst" usually represents an instinctive desire, but pairing it with “thoughtfulness” suggests that this is no blind craving. 

That act of putting another first transforms ordinary thirst into something sweeter and, ultimately, more meaningful. "Cooler." 

In restraint lies discipline, and in discipline, love. Consideration is more refreshing than self-satisfaction. 

Perhaps there is the hint of the erotic in this poem too. This phrase is telling: “Though cooler than the Water was / The Thoughtfulness of Thirst.” Here, the feeling of wanting, the ache itself, is more powerful than satisfaction. The anticipation is more emotionally charged than the act. This flips the usual hierarchy: wanting is more charged than having. And giving, more satisfying.

         -/)dam Wade l)eGraff

Thirst, 1886, William-Adolphe Bougeaureau 

P.S. This poem, read carefully and deeply and often, might be a powerful tonic against addiction. It says, succinctly, that resistance to desire is more quenching than desire itself.

P.P.S. In researching this post I discovered that the letter to "Susie" from 1852, in its entirety is online. It's worth a look.