While Dowland's First Booke of Songs (1597) was groundbreaking in its use of the lute to provide instrumental accompaniment to the singers, it was not particularly advanced in other respects—all the songs were strophic and fairly conventional. His next two Bookes, however, were quite complex in their part writing and occasional use of obbligato viols. The first few songs of each of those Bookes, however, were for just two voices and lute, one voice singing the main vocal line and the other a bass part that today is often eliminated in performance. Such is the case with this song, Sorrow, stay lend true repentant tears. It is, as its title suggests, a sorrowful affair, one of the composer's more mournful creations. The main vocal line yearns and cries, the music almost palpably in touch with its sad text. Thus, when the singer repeatedly intones the word "down," the notes despairingly descend with a sense of pathetic desperation. Thematically, there is subtle appeal in the song, the main theme slow, dark, and profound and not easily appreciated at first hearing. One can safely observe that this four-minute masterwork will offer abundant rewards to the patient listener.

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