Homer and English Metre. By W. G. T. Barter, Esq.
(Bell an& Daldy.)—Mr. Barter, who, as some of our readers may perhaps remem- ber, published in 1854 a literal translation of the Iliad in the Spenserian damn, has now given us a brief exposition of his views on the general subject of Homeric translation, together with an English rendering_ or the first book of the Odyssey. He prides himself on having produced the first English metrical version of Homer that aimed at being literal ; the first that preserved the Greek names, and in the order of the original ; and the first in the Spenserian stanza. His principal canons of English translation are two in number—that the translation should be literal, and that the translator should select a native English metre. The specimens of his own version given us by Mr. Barter are by no means devoid of vigour, but he has no scruple in sacrificing clearness of ex- pression to his relentless determination to be literal at any price.
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