When the trumpet's awful tone
Through the realms sepulchral blown,
Summons all before the Throne!
The solemn strength and vibration of these tremendous trilineals suffers no general injury by the variant readings—and there are a good many. As a sample, the first stanza was changed by some canonical redactor to get rid of the heathen word Sybilla, and the second line was made the third:
Dies Irae, dies illa
Crucis expandens vexilla,
Solvet saeclum in favilla.
Day of wrath! that day foretold,
With the cross-flag wide unrolled,
Shall the world in fire enfold!