The Iliad of Homer
in 
English Hexameter Verse
by
J. Henry Dart
London 1865

[Sample from the Opening of the Poem]

“Chryses’ prayer: — and the pest on the host: — and the strife of the Princes.” 

SING, divine Muse, sing the implacable wrath of Achilleus! 
Heavy with death and with woe to the banded sons of Achaia! 
Many the souls of the mighty, the souls of redoubtable heroes, 
Hurried by it prematurely to Hades. The vultures and wild-dogs 
Tore their tombless limbs. Yet thus did the will of the Highest 
Work to an end—from the day when strife drove madly asunder, 
Atreus’ son, king of men ; and the Godlike leader Achilleus.

Say—from whom of the Gods, at first did the bitter contention 
Seize on the chiefs?—From Him:—from the son of Zeus and of Leto! 
He, on the leaguering armies, in wrath at the sin of the monarch,
Sent a fell pest:—for the monarch sinn’d, and the people were slaughter’d: 
Slain for the crime of the king, who dishonor’d the priest of Apollo. 

Suppliant Chryses came, to the swift-sailing ships of Achaia: 
Suppliant, seeking his child—with priceless gifts for her ransom; 
Bearing aloft his sceptre, the golden staff of his priesthood,  
Wreath’d with the sacred fillets:—and much besought all the Achaians 
Atreus’ sons most of all men, who order’d and govern’d the people.

“Hear me, O Atreus’ sons, and ye warrior ranks of Achaia! 
Yours be it soon, by the aid of the Gods who inhabit Olympus, 
Storming the Trojan wall, to return in peace to your homesteads. 
Only restore me my child!—take the ransom I bring to redeem her!— 
Take it, and honor the God : — son of Zeus : — far-darting Apollo !” 

Thus did the father pray.—Content were the other Achaians, 
Both to give ear to the priest, and to take the rich gift of the ransom. 
Little, however, did this suit the mood of the King Agamemnon : 
Fiercely the elder he drave from the galleys, and sternly rebuked him.

“Never, again, old man, let me find thee here by the galleys! 
Linger not mid them now, nor return thou hither hereafter! 
Fillets, and sacred staff, perchance will little avail thee! 
Whom thou seekest is mine: and mine, be sure, I retain her!
Mine, in my palace at Argos, away from the land of her fathers; 
Plying the loom, and sharing my bed, till age come upon her. 
Hence then!— tempt me no more!—but begone if thou lovest thy safety!”—

And—in his fear of the King—he obey’d that heavy commandment. 
Mourning, he paced by the margin of Ocean eternally sounding— 
Mourning, yet silent; ‘til far from the galleys—and then to Apollo 
Deeply and long did he pray—to the son of the fair-tress’d Leto. 

“God of the silver bow—thou that art the protector of Chrysa; 
Guardest Cilla divine; over Tenedos mightily rulest; 
Smintheus:—list to my prayer!—If e’er on the walls of thy temple, 
Flowery wreaths of mine have bloom’d—if e’er, by my offering, 
Bulls, and the blood of goats, have nourish’d the flame of thine altars; 
Tear for tear that I shed, let a Danaan die by thine arrows!” 

Earnestly pray’d his priest; and the prayer rose to Phoebus Apollo! 
Down from the peaks of Olympus, in all of the pride of his anger, 
Down the avenger came:—and the silver bow on his shoulder, 
Clang’d as he rush’d along; and the shafts rattled loud in the quiver, 
E’en as alive with the wrath of the God:—as like night he descended. 
Planted afar from the fleet, on the fleet flew his terrible arrows. 
Dire was the clang of the silvery string as it sounded and bounded!  
First upon mules, and dogs swift-limb’d, and then upon mortals, 
Hurtled the shafts; and fast thro’ the air rose flames from the death-piles. 

REVIEW COMMENT

Dart’s Preface contains a stout, unapologetic defense of the hexameter as the only English poetic rhythm appropriate in translations of Homer: “In [the Hexameter], and in it alone, is it possible . . . to combine adequate fidelity to the original, with that vigor and rapidity of movement, without which a translation may repoduce the ideas of the poet, and may be an exceedingly elaborate, elegant, and artistic production, but is not Homer, any more than the obelisk of Luxor is the Matterhorn.” This argument, dogmatically expressed, is, as I have remarked elsewhere, pointless (though often interesting), since the only sensible judgment of a translation should be pragmatic: What does this particular translation achieve?

The answer to that question in the case of Dart’s translation seems to be not very much, certainly not enough to bolster his claims for the potential “vigor and rapidity of movement” of the hexameter, as one of his contemporaries observed in remarks on two partial translations of the Iliad, one by Dart (published before his editon of the entire poem) and one by J. B. T. Landon: “Now, without questioning the possibility of writing good English hexameters, we are not convinced by these versions of the possibility of producing a translation in that verse which shall be at once valuable and pleasing. That very beautiful verses of that sort can be written has been proved by Mr. Kingsley, whose ‘Andromeda’ contains lines and passages of great force and effect. But it is one thing to compose an original poem in a particular metre, and another to employ that metre for the purposes of translation. . . . After making due allowance for the difficulties of the task, it must be owned that Mr. Dart and Mr. Landon have made praiseworthy attempts towards solving the problems of Homeric translation. They have contributed to prove that the hexameter metre can be closely imitated, although it cannot be reproduced in English. It has still to be determined whether or not the public will read and admire a long poem in hexameters.” Foreign Quarterly Review, Volume 77 (1862).

Dart also comments that he has managed to stay very close to the lineation of Homer's text, so much so that, in spite of occasional lapses, “each paragraph of the original is represented by the same number of lines in the translation.” Why this feature of a translation should be a matter of such importance to some translators I have never been able to fathom, but Dart’s evident pride in his achievement is a sentiment frequently echoed in modern translations.

Readers who would like to see the complete text of Dart’s translation should use the following link: Dart Iliad.
 

[List of Published English Translations of Homer]