Thomas C.Foster

Bargains with the devil go back a long way in Western culture.

Hansberry’s version, when Mr. Lindner makes his offer, he doesn’t demand Walter Lee’s soul; in fact, he doesn’t even know that he’s demanding it. He is, though.

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”

we discuss poems, we refer to speakers rather than narrators, since poems do not inevitably involve the telling of a story but almost always have someone say something.

And many speakers are obviously characters, so they are easily discerned as having lives of their own.

From the first moment, Frost builds the poem around the difficulty of choice.

grassy and wanted wear.”

about the same”

Frost said that he was inspired to write this poem by his neighbor and friend from the time when he resided in England, Edward Thomas, also a
poet of importance.

Thomas could never, according to Frost, make up his mind when presented with two alternatives.