Drop, drop, slow tears

Drop, drop, slow tears. Phineas Fletcher* (1582-1650). From Fletcher’s Piscatorie Eclogs and other Poeticall Miscellanies (1633), where it is a short six-line poem entitled ‘An Hymne’, written in ten-syllabled lines, thus: Drop, drop, slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet... In hymnals these were normally divided into lines of six and four syllables to make a total of twelve lines, divided into three stanzas: Drop, drop, slow tears,  And bathe those beauteous feet,Which brought from heaven  The news and Prince of peace. Cease not, wet eyes,  His mercies to entreat;To cry for vengeance  Sin doth never cease. In your deep floods  Drown all my faults and fears;Nor let his eye  See sin,...