In Sophocles' world, the gods have receded. They've already determined (more or less) the fate of human beings and are content to watch from a comfortable distance. Of course, it's unclear exactly what their motives are; it all seems basically arbitrary and cruel. Indeed, the morality of the gods is

Classical, Classical greek, Excessive, Pathos, Sublime, Tense, Tragic, Violent

Georges Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (1886) remains a landmark painting. It established the Parisian artist as one of the figures who would push Impressionism towards its logical conclusion. And push he did, in the direction of abstraction and a radically scientific

Bright, Clean, Mathematical, Pioneering, Pointillism, Tense

Collage, Czech silent-to-sound, Dense, Silence, Tense

In contrast to the political poetry that epitomized so much of the 1970s, Martin Espada's work kicks aside the pulpit and abandons the megaphone. Espada calls his readers to action in a more indirect fashion -- he envisions a free world without idealizing and describes social horrors without repriman

Political, Power, Sincere, Subtle, Tense