Fitzgerald writes in verse throughout, using lines of variable length that follow the breath of speech without locking into a strict metrical pattern. His diction sits in a middle register: neither archaic nor casual, it reads as formal English without sounding dated. In the Book 21 passage, he writes "Come, friend, face your death, you too," a short, blunt line that carries real weight without ornament. Graves, by contrast, uses prose for most of his translation, though he occasionally breaks into rhyming verse, as in the Book 6 leaves passage: "All forest leaves are born to die / All mortal men the same." That rhyming approach can feel sing-song against the plainness of the Greek. His prose in Book 21, "Did you ever see so strong or so handsome a man?", reads as relaxed, almost conversational. Fitzgerald treats the poem as something to be heard, keeping the pacing tight and trusting line breaks to do rhetorical work. In Book 9, he gives Achilles' choice in two clean parallel clauses that mirror the Greek structure closely. Graves moves away from formal fidelity and toward readability, often adding explanatory phrases or colloquial energy that clarifies the scene for a modern reader. In the Book 5 Athena passage, Fitzgerald's "maniacal god / by nature evil, two-faced everywhere" stays close to the Greek compound insult, while Graves writes "that mad, raving fellow, that universal curse, that renegade," which extends the rebuke and makes it punchier but looser. Fitzgerald preserves more of the Greek's compression. Graves makes the story easier to follow on a first read.
Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men—carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.
Sing, Mountain Goddess, sing through me
That anger which most ruinously
Inflamed Achilles, Peleus' son,
And which, before the tale was done,
Had glutted Hell with champions—bold,
Stern spirits by the thousandfold;
Ravens and dogs their corpses ate
For thus did Zeus, who watched their fate,
See his resolve, first taken when
Proud Agamemnon, King of men,
An insult on Achilles cast,
Achieve accomplishment at last.