<span>Tom Walker, the protagonist of Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker," meets the Devil in a swampy land on his way home. Tom, having lived with an abusive wife, "had no fear of the devil." So he was comfortable around the Devil</span>
"between the two countries"
A prepositional phrase needs to contain a preposition, in this case it would be "between". As well it needs to modify the sentence and it should mention the object of the sentence. So "between the two countries" is correct.
That the characters age is sixteen at one point
Metaphors and similes are used to add depth and meaning to the poem, so it looks normal on the surface but when you re-read it you uncover a deeper meaning :)