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Title: A Note to English Teachers
Review: Cost being a factor in determining books to be purchased by students, I strongly recommend this translation by Leonard Bacon (1914). The lines are mainly in iambic heptameter (seven beats per line) with a clear caesura, which facilitates a student's oral reading of the poem. Though the original French used assonance more than end rhyme, Bacon does rhyme his English lines. Compared to the iambic pentameter of the Dorothy L. Sayers translation, Bacon's is a little faster paced, but one senses the hoofbeats of the horses with two more beats per line, which isn't altogether bad for an epic poem about a military massacre. Though a good choice in terms of price, Bacon's translation lacks glosses of archaisms (e.g., the word "eme" is not explained as an archaism of "uncle"). Still, the teacher can supply these as necessary. For [the money], you can't go wrong!
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