Pope writes in heroic couplets, the dominant English verse form of his era, which gives his Iliad a strong forward march and a formal, elevated register. His diction is archaic and decorative: in Book 9 he renders Achilles' choice as "each alternate, life or fame, proposed," compressing the Greek into pointed antithesis. In Book 6, the leaves simile becomes "Now green in youth, now withering on the ground," a balanced line that sounds finished, almost epigrammatic. Mitchell writes in free verse with longer, looser lines. In the same Book 9 passage he writes "my glory will die, but my life will be long and peaceful," which is direct and plainly worded. His register is contemporary without being casual. Pope's couplets create a steady ceremonial beat; Mitchell's lines move at a conversational pace. Pope's translation prioritizes English literary effect over strict fidelity to Homer. He adds rhetorical ornament, cuts whole lines, and reshapes speech into polished periods. In Book 21 he removes the physical detail of Lycaon dropping his spear and falling forward, keeping only Achilles' speech. Mitchell stays closer to the action and includes the psychological detail: "death stands waiting for me as well." His stated aim is a readable, speakable poem that preserves Homer's directness. Pope's approach gives readers a great poem of the early eighteenth century; Mitchell's gives them a cleaner view of what Homer's words actually say and do. A reader who wants literary grandeur will find it in Pope; a reader who wants the story told plainly will find that in Mitchell.
Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumbered, heavenly goddess, sing!
That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy reign
The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain;
Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore,
Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore.
Since great Achilles and Atrides strove,
Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!
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.