Poetry Analysis

The speaker in D. H. Lawrence's "Snake" liked the snake because he perceived it as a majestic, dignified, and noble creature. He felt honored that this "king in exile" from the underworld had chosen to visit his water-trough. He admired its calm and graceful presence, seeing it as a natural lord, which made him question his human education that taught him to fear and kill it.

No, the speaker in Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" is not afraid of death. On the contrary, he romanticizes it as the ultimate patriotic sacrifice. He finds comfort in the thought that if he dies in a foreign land, his body will make that piece of ground "for ever England," enriching it with his Englishness.