Karen P.L. Hardison
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About
An early career in finance as a licensed stockbroker and insurance agent was later followed by a return to college, studying literature and the poetry of Edmund Spenser and Geoffrey Chaucer, along with economics and environmental science. I undertook postgraduate work in grammar, phonetics and phonemics, sociolinguistics and dialects. Since 2006, I’ve written news articles on a range of sciences and financial events for social journalism sites, currently Blasting News. I’ve recently returned to the financial industry by joining World Financial Group.
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Recent Activity
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Answered a Question in The Mayor of Casterbridge
Three traits that underlie Lucetta's character, seen in chapters 18 and 22, and that provide many of her motivations are that she is fond of scheming, she is a fraud, and she is self-serving. Fond... -
Answered a Question in The Red-Headed League
Differences between Conan Doyle's short story "The Red-Headed League" and the 1954 film adaptation (actually a BBC T.V. series episode, one of several such series episodes) are many, but... -
Answered a Question in Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Tennyson, born in 1809, came of age during the time of heightening power for the Romantic poets, beginning with William Blake, who lived from 1757 to 1827, and ending with John Keats, who lived... -
Answered a Question in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
The fundamental elements of poetic form are line breaks, rhythm, metrical feet, and rhyme. T.S. Eliot's playful poem "Macavity The Mystery Cat" is part of his larger work Old Possum’s Book of... -
Answered a Question in My Last Duchess
Browning associates "My Last Duchess" strongly with the fifth duke, Alfonso II d'Este, of the Renaissance duchy of Ferrara by adding the single word "Ferrara" as the poem's epigraph, yet he never... -
Answered a Question in Psalm 8
There seems to be some confusion over the correct definitions of "psalm" and "hymn." [It] is difficult to decide to what degree, if at all, a distinction ... is made by the ... terms, psalms,... -
Answered a Question in Ode on a Grecian Urn
Contemplating an ancient Grecian Urn, the poet Keats describes part of what he sees then asks about the legend the relief scene or painted scene represents. He starts out by addressing whom he... -
Answered a Question in Ode on a Grecian Urn
While different critics take varying views of the overall unity of Keats' text, the textually logical explanation of the different scenes that he describes is that all are different parts of the... -
Answered a Question in On His Blindness
While it is true that Milton begins his poem with an embedded adverbial clause of time (also called a dependent or subordinate clause), it is also true that there are a string of such subordinate... -
Answered a Question in Remember
It is tempting to interpret, as opposed to analyze, poetry text from the perspective of one's current historical, social, or cultural era and personal experience (interpretation can often reduce to... -
Answered a Question in My Last Duchess
While out walking, Browning made the comment to Hiram Corson, after the latter had published an introductory study of Browning's poetry, stating that what he had in mind when he wrote "gave orders"... -
Answered a Question in Persuasion
Two themes that Austen addresses in Persuasion, which had both cultural and personal significance for Austen, are those of constancy in love and long engagements. One reason Lady Russell was... -
Answered a Question in Song: To Celia
Some scholars read "Song: To Celia," also known as "Drink to Me Only," as an anti-idealization poem written tongue-in-cheek by Jonson. That is to say, it is thought that Jonson is ridiculing the... -
Answered a Question in Oliver Twist
Have you ever wondered why Dickens, the master of symbolic names, chose "Brownlow" as the name for Oliver's benefactor? A case could be made that since Brownlow was a man with a deep sorrow--but... -
Answered a Question in Sonnet 29
The structure of Sonnet 29 is very interesting. The first eight lines are a relative when-clause indicating the time of the occurrence detailed (or occurrences, depending on how you look at the... -
Answered a Question in Remember
Structural Analysis of "Remember" (New Criticism) When performing a structural analysis for "Remember," the four things that dominate our attention are the allusion she uses in line 2; the... -
Answered a Question in Remember
"Remember" is constructed as a sonnet. The sonnet form can do a lot to help us understand the somewhat elusive meaning of "Remember." The sonnet form, in this case, the Petrarachan form (not... -
Answered a Question in Sonnet 19
In Sonnet 19, the poetic persona grants that Time has power over the world and yields to Time's power. "Time" is addressed with a capital {T}, which gives time personification with human... -
Answered a Question in Sense and Sensibility
In order to understand Sense and Sensibility (indeed, any of Austen's works), it is critical to understand Georgian society and culture (1714-1830, includes Georgian Regency 1811-1820), especially... -
Answered a Question in She Walks in Beauty
Seen as a love poem, Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" has complexities and intricacies that raise it above the level of a Romantic era love poem. Remembering that poetic punctuation indicates thought... -
Answered a Question in Remember
The definition of "resignation" is to have an accepting, unresisting attitude of acquiescence or submission (Random House Dictionary). If the theme of resignation is present in this sonnet, then... -
Answered a Question in Remember
The central theme of "Remember" is remembering. Rossetti explores remembrance after death through two perspectives: the perspective of one who loves and is left behind, after "darkness and... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
Austen uses Elizabeth, Jane, Darcy, and Wickham to explore the related themes of Concealment and Approbation and Disapprobation. concealment: the action of hiding something or preventing it from... -
Answered a Question in Around the World in Eighty Days
The Reform Club extends credibility to (seemingly) lesser individuals. This theme is most developed through Fogg himself, through the elephant driver and guide, and through Aouda. The theme... -
Answered a Question in Ode on a Grecian Urn
Critics find it hard to agree on exactly what Keats is describing in "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Some suggest that stanza 4 is a digression away from the urn he is either imagining or recalling. The... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
Charlotte Lucas is critical in illustrating Austen's theme of love and marriage, which is developed through the representation of various kinds: arranged marriage after failed elopement; marriage... -
Answered a Question in Ode on a Grecian Urn
The plot that Keats develops as he muses in this lyric poem is intertwined with the suggestion of his feelings and themes. The central feelings the Grecian urn inspires in Keats are wonder, "dost... -
Answered a Question in Ode on a Grecian Urn
One of Keats' themes is the contrast between people and situations frozen in perfect representations and living people and evolving situations that are imperfect. On the urn, the bride and groom... -
Answered a Question in Sense and Sensibility
Austen made her central characters sets of siblings who have opposing characteristics and even opposing educations. This choice permits her to explore the ideas of human nature and environmental... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
The opening of Pride and Prejudice is a complex one and one that is ofttimes misunderstood. This elusiveness of understanding is complicated by film versions of the novel that compound the... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
Mrs. Bennet is one of three characters in Pride and Prejudice thought to mostly function as comic relief. Does Mrs. Bennet have another function in the novel? It cannot be said that Mrs. Bennet... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
Mr. William Collins has a grand scheme to help himself and to help his cousin, Mr. Bennet. A clergyman, Mr. Collins has been encouraged by his patroness, Lady de Bourgh, to set a proper example for... -
Answered a Question in Remember
The theme of death often juxtaposes the theme of mortality and immortality. The poetic speaker faces her mortality by accepting the pull of death "into the silent land." She seeks to imbue herself... -
Answered a Question in Miss Brill
This story by Mansfield encourages confusion about Miss Brill because of its loose-jointed, rambling psychological discourse. However, careful consideration of the text illuminates the character of... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
Mr. Bennet and Sir William Lucas had paid calls on Bingley. He had returned the call to Mr. Bennet, but had not met the Bennet girls. It was at the Meryton assembly that all the neighborhood had... -
Answered a Question in Sense and Sensibility
While it is true to say that Marianne has no attraction toward Colonel Brandon because he is too old and wears "flannel" waistcoats, it is not true to say that, as a consequence, she rejects his... -
Answered a Question in She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
Wordsworth wrote "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" in 1798, the year he and Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads (the same year, incidentally, that Jane Austen was composing Pride and Prejudice).... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
Lady Catherine de Bourgh is a difficult character to fully understand. Her role in Pride and Prejudice is complex. Yes, she is arrogant, pompous, intrusive and annoying, yet she is also a woman... -
Answered a Question in Psalm 8
It has long been known that while King David of the Israelites wrote 74 of the Psalms (www.ifcj.org/site "Psalms of David"), 47 have no known author and 29 are attributed to other authors (there is... -
Answered a Question in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Literary critics and analysts agree that "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" is the picture of simplicity, yet, at the same time, an object of great complexity. "What appears to be 'simple'... -
Answered a Question in On a Drop of Dew
It may be difficult for some of us to follow the topic of Marvell's poem because of the compression of the poet's language. Once the poem is mastered, it seems self-evident how the topic unfolds,... -
Answered a Question in Ode on a Grecian Urn
Contemplation of the urn leads Keats to recognize the flawed nature of the flawless scenes shown in the "marble" figured base relief on the urn. The "bride of quietness" though flawless is flawed... -
Answered a Question in Mansfield Park
Fanny Price was described even by Austen's family and friends as insipid and timid. But is that all that Fanny Price is? Is Fanny Price's role simply to illustrate a morality tale in which being... -
Answered a Question in Song: To Celia
It may seem surprising that such a simple poem could cause difficulties in trying to understand it, yet it seems to do just that on at least two or three points. In such a case, it is best to begin... -
Answered a Question in Pride and Prejudice
An interesting question is whether Austen structures Elizabeth's character so that she represents a reliable character or an unreliable character. While the terminology for unreliability in... -
Answered a Question in Sense and Sensibility
Elinor and Marianne, London Elinor and Marianne are invited to London by Mrs. Jennings. Elinor expects that Marianne, despising Mrs. Jennings, will reject the offer out of hand. Yet Elinor did not... -
Answered a Question in Oliver Twist
In a richly developed framework of events and issues, Dickens' presents the joint themes of Education and Workhouse Life by contrasting workhouse children to street children of London. It is... -
Answered a Question in Sense and Sensibility
Lucy was naturally clever; her remarks were often just and amusing; and as a companion for half an hour Elinor frequently found her agreeable; but her powers had received no aid from education: she... -
Answered a Question in Remember
The next most obvious theme in "Remember" is death. Death is presented in the allusion ending the second line: "into the silent land." The placement of this allusion to death is critical since it... -
Answered a Question in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost contended that too much effort was given by critics to finding deeply symbolic interpretations of his poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," which is about, in his words, "the...
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