Chapman (1611) writes in rhyming couplets with long fourteener lines, a meter common in Elizabethan verse. The effect is stately and dense. His diction is openly archaic: "Jove's will gave effect," "that invisible cave / That no light comforts," "remarkable magnified." Johnston (2002) uses unrhymed free verse with lines closer to natural speech patterns. His register is plain contemporary English: "that murderous anger," "carrion food for dogs and birds," "you fill my heart with joy." In the Book 21 death scene, Chapman writes "Die, die, my friend. What tears are these?" and Johnston gives "you too must die. Why be sad about it?" Chapman's version has theatrical force; Johnston's lands as direct, almost blunt speech. Chapman was translating from available Greek texts and parallel Latin versions, and his choices favor poetic energy over literal fidelity. He expands freely: in Book 9, the Greek simply states the two fates, but Chapman adds "t' abridge my life for praise," a moralizing gloss absent from the original. Johnston tracks the Greek more closely in content, keeping summaries tight and names consistent, which makes him more useful to a reader checking the original. In the leaves passage from Book 6, Johnston gives a clean four-line version of the simile; Chapman restructures it around "the wind in autumn strows," which is vivid but moves away from the Greek's symmetry. Chapman rewards a reader who wants rhetorical richness; Johnston rewards one who wants clarity about what Homer actually said.
Achilles' baneful wrath resound, O Goddess, that impos'd
Infinite sorrows on the Greeks, and many brave souls loos'd
From breasts heroic; sent them far to that invisible cave
That no light comforts; and their limbs to dogs and vultures gave:
To all which Jove's will gave effect; from whom first strife begun
Betwixt Atrides, king of men, and Thetis' godlike son.
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.