Johnston writes in free verse, which gives him a natural tool for controlling pace: each line break creates a small pause, and he uses it to isolate key ideas. In the leaves passage (Book 6), his "Generations of men are like the leaves" opens on a clean, measured beat before the image unfolds across five lines. Rouse runs the same image into a single prose sentence: "Leaves fall when the breezes blow, in the springtime others grow." The rhyme ("blow / grow") is unplanned-looking but noticeable, and it gives the moment a singsong quality Johnston avoids. Rouse's register wanders, from plain biblical dignity in the opening lines to the blunt "Mr. Facing-all-ways" in Book 5, where Athena describes Ares. Johnston keeps his register more consistent throughout: contemporary, neutral, never archaic. Rouse prioritizes readability for a general audience, and he wrote the translation explicitly for that purpose. He cuts ceremonial weight to keep the story moving. In the Achilles speech of Book 9, both translations carry the essential fork ("stay and win glory, or go home and live long"), but Rouse adds "on the road to death" where Johnston stays closer to the Greek's spare presentation. Johnston handles the Athena-Diomedes exchange (Book 5) by ending on a direct statement: "he's forgotten that and helps the Trojans." Rouse ends with "and forgets all about that!" The exclamation mark shows his tendency toward theatrical punctuation that adds editorial energy the Greek does not supply. Johnston removes that energy, which means he also removes some of Rouse's immediate liveliness.
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.
An angry man—There is my story: The bitter rancour of Achillês, prince of the house of Peleus, which brought a thousand troubles upon the Achaian host. Many a strong soul it sent down to Hadês, and left the heroes themselves a prey to dogs and carrion birds, while the will of God moved on to fulfilment.
It began first of all with a quarrel between my lord King Agamemnon of Atreus' line and the Prince Achillês.