Rieu writes in prose and Fitzgerald in verse, and the difference in form changes how the reader moves through the poem. Rieu's sentences are clear and conversational: his opening gives "Anger — sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles," which keeps the word order close to the Greek before settling into plain English syntax. Fitzgerald breaks the same material into short lines with compressed phrasing, "doomed and ruinous" doing work that Rieu spreads across a clause. In the leaves passage from Book 6, Rieu writes "one generation grows, the other fades," a balanced pair. Fitzgerald writes "one generation flows / even as another dies away," where the line break slows the reader and the word "flows" adds motion Rieu does not put there. Rieu reads at newspaper speed; Fitzgerald asks for something closer to reading aloud. Rieu's prose removes most of the performance pressure from the text. He was translating for the Penguin Classics series in 1950 and aimed at readers who had no Greek and no prior experience of epic. His Achilles in Book 21 says "Even Patroclus died, who was a better man than you by far," which is direct and clear. Fitzgerald, working in verse, keeps more of the speech's forward momentum: "Patroklos died, and he was a finer man / by far than you." Fitzgerald also retains Greek-style spellings throughout, "Akhilleus," "Akhaians," which signals a concern for the foreign texture of the original. Rieu removes that foreignness. A reader who wants the poem to feel immediate and modern will find that in Rieu; a reader who wants verse to carry the sound of the poem will find that in Fitzgerald.
Anger — sing, goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that accursed anger, which brought the Greeks endless sufferings and sent the mighty souls of many warriors to Hades, leaving their bodies as carrion for the dogs and a feast for the birds; and Zeus' purpose was fulfilled. It all began when Agamemnon lord of men and godlike Achilles quarrelled and parted.
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.