Alexander writes in verse with longer, denser lines that stay close to the weight of each Greek phrase. Her diction sits in a formal register without reaching for archaic decoration. In the Book 21 passage, she gives Achilles the line "Come friend, you die too; why bewail this so?" — direct and stark, the address "friend" carrying an unsettling warmth. Johnston's lines are shorter and break more often, giving his verse a quicker, more conversational rhythm. His version of the same moment reads: "So now, my friend, / you too must die. Why be sad about it?" The phrase "why be sad about it" is plainer, closer to spoken English. Both work in verse, but Alexander's lines carry more weight per line and Johnston's move faster. Alexander keeps close to the Greek word order and retains epithets in full. In the opening lines, she preserves "wrath" as the first word, matching Homer's "μῆνιν" at line's start, and names "the ruinous wrath of Peleus' son Achilles" with the full patronymic intact. Johnston opens with "Sing, Goddess, sing the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus" and doubles "sing," a choice that adds oral energy but adds a word the Greek does not have. Alexander's approach gives readers something close to the Greek structure; the trade-off is that her lines sometimes feel weighted and deliberate. Johnston's version reads more easily aloud and arrives at meaning faster, but smooths over some of the texture that makes the Greek syntactically dense.
Wrath—sing, goddess, of the ruinous wrath of Peleus' son Achilles,
that inflicted woes without number upon the Achaeans,
hurled forth to Hades many strong souls of warriors
and rendered their bodies prey for the dogs,
for all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished;
sing from when they two first stood in conflict—
Atreus' son, lord of men, and godlike Achilles.
Sing, Goddess, sing the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus—
that murderous anger which condemned Achaeans
to countless agonies and threw many warrior souls
deep into Hades, leaving their dead bodies
carrion food for dogs and birds—
all in fulfilment of the will of Zeus.