'es' as a "delayed subject"?

Question

I am trying to learn the various uses of es and poking around in Duden and Wiktionary, I came across this sentence for usage as a “delayed” subject.

(1) Es fielen die ersten Tropfen, einzelne, aber sehr schwere.

If I take the “normal” subject as,

(2) Die ersten Tropfen fielen, einzelne, aber sehr schwere.

Do I get the right meaning (apologies for my comma usage) if I say:

1. It fell, the first drops, single but very heavy.

2. The first drops fell, single but very heavy.

Also, can someone tell me when the “delayed” form in the form of sentence (1) is used commonly nowadays, if at all?

The fragment Es fielen die ersten Tropfen … comes from Duden online for es under the meaning

kündigt ein ins Mittel- oder Nachfeld des Satzes gerücktes (hervorzuhebendes) Subjekt an oder einen im Mittel- oder Nachfeld stehenden [verkürzten] Subjekt- oder Objektsatz; da; das

That was my rationale for using the term “delayed subject” as used by the English Wiktionary.

When I search for the complete sentence as shown above in (1), Google offers an extract from an old German book: Alexis, Willibald: Ruhe ist die erste Bürgerpflicht oder Vor fünfzig Jahren. Bd. 1. Berlin, 1852. You can see the extract here.

Answer 1

The "es" in this case is a an empty filler. There has to something in position 1; otherwise the sentence would sound like a question. But for some reason the author chose to move all the constituents after the verb, which is fine. But only if position 1 gets filled and that is done by what we can savely call a "filler-es". Note that

it has nothing to do with the subject!

This shows once we look at the conjugation of the verb. "es" is singular, "die ersten Tropfen" is plural. The verb is "fallen" so we're using a plural form. But that's not the only reason. The filler-es can always be used when position 1 is empty, even in sentences that do not have a subject.

In Deutschland wird viel gemeckert.
Es wird in Deutschland viel gemeckert.

As far as translation goes I would use "then" if the sentence is part of a sequence of events or your version 2; if not probably just this:

Drops started falling, single ones but very heavy.

Answer 2

Top, you made a good translation.

The first form is stil commonly used, it has sometimes an poetic touch. With it's short rhythmic parts your first example could be from a poem or a song.

Here a more common example.

Es fielen die ersten Tropfen, bald darauf regnete es in Strömen.