Mitchell writes in a loose contemporary idiom with long, plainspoken lines that read close to prose. Fitzgerald uses a tighter, more formally arranged verse with diction that stays elevated without turning archaic. In the Book 1 opening, Mitchell gives "the deadly rage that caused the Achaeans such grief," where the syntax is straight and the vocabulary ordinary. Fitzgerald opens with "Anger be now your song, immortal one," an inverted construction that keeps a ceremonial weight. In the Book 21 passage, Mitchell has Achilles say "Why all this moaning about it?" while Fitzgerald writes "why are you so piteous about it?" Mitchell reaches for colloquial directness; Fitzgerald stays in a register that is elevated without reaching for archaism. Fitzgerald's lines are shorter and more varied in their breaks. Mitchell's priority is a readable, fast-moving narrative. He cuts epithets, compresses formulas, and occasionally paraphrases where the Greek is repetitive. The Book 6 leaves simile shows this: Mitchell adds "it is the same with men" as an explanatory hinge the Greek does not spell out. Fitzgerald keeps closer to the structural logic of the original, letting "old leaves, cast on the ground by wind, young leaves / the greening forest bears" carry its own meaning without editorial addition. Mitchell's approach means readers move through the poem with less friction; Fitzgerald's means the strangeness and formality of the Greek survive more intact. Both are verse translations aimed at non-specialists, but they trade on different reader expectations.
The rage of Achilles—sing it now, goddess, sing through me
the deadly rage that caused the Achaeans such grief
and hurled down to Hades the souls of so many fighters,
leaving their naked flesh to be eaten by dogs
and carrion birds, as the will of Zeus was accomplished.
Begin at the time when bitter words first divided
that king of men, Agamemnon, and godlike Achilles.
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.