Both translations are in verse, but they handle line length and diction quite differently. Verity writes longer lines that carry more words per breath, closer to the rolling pace of Homer's hexameters. His register is elevated but not stiff: "this crazed god, this shape formed of evil, this two-faced scoundrel" (Book 5) has energy without sounding antique. Wilson writes shorter lines with a contemporary, spare vocabulary. Her Book 5 rendering of the same moment, "violent, and aggressive, and insane," is plainer and more clipped. In the leaves passage (Book 6), Verity gives you a full explanatory sentence, "one generation grows and another ceases," while Wilson stops short: "one human generation comes to be, / another ends." Wilson's diction throughout sits closer to spoken English. Verity keeps the Greek structure visible. He holds onto Homeric epithets and syntactic patterns, so a reader can track how the original moves. Wilson's priorities are readability and directness. In Book 21, Verity's Achilles says "why lament like this?" while Wilson's says "Why are you so upset?" The second phrase is faster and more colloquial, but it loses the formal register Homer gives to a death speech. Verity gains proximity to the source text and to scholarly expectation; he can lose momentum for readers unused to that pace. Wilson gains immediacy and accessibility; she removes some of the ceremonial weight that Homeric diction carries. The choice depends on whether you want to feel the poem's age or its urgency.
SING, goddess, the anger of Achilles, Peleus' son,
the accursed anger which brought the Achaeans countless
agonies and hurled many mighty shades of heroes into Hades,
causing them to become the prey of dogs and
all kinds of birds; and the plan of Zeus was fulfilled.
Sing from the time the two men were first divided in strife—
Atreus' son, lord of men, and glorious Achilles.
Goddess, sing of the cataclysmic wrath
of great Achilles, son of Peleus,
which caused the Greeks immeasurable pain
and sent so many noble souls of heroes
to Hades, and made men the spoils of dogs,
a banquet for the birds, and so the plan
of Zeus unfolded—starting with the conflict
between great Agamemnon, lord of men,
and glorious Achilles.