How does the poet use juxtaposition in the poem, To Lucasta, Going to Wars?

The poem’s use of language uniquely serves its specific political and idealogical purposes. The language of the poem is at once simple and direct – speaking straightforwardly, even intimately, to Lucasta – and yet vague, philosophical, even mythical in its approach to moral questions. The poem begins in that place of simplicity: “tell me not (sweet) I am unkind” (1). The interpolation of the word “sweet” creates a sense of real intimacy between the speaker and his subject. By placing it in parentheses, Lovelace constructs it as an aside, a tender gesture that seems to intrude into the poem’s overall argument, as though the speaker cannot help but express his love for Lucasta.

Yet, as the poem goes on, it moves into a vaguer mode. The depiction of war has none of the intimacy and none of the directness with which Lucasta is addressed. Instead, it is described in the most general possible terms: “war and arms,” for instance, carefully avoids any of the feelings that might be associated with war (4). This allows Lovelace to discuss war in a metaphorical and idealogical register, rather than engaging with the details of the controversial royal wars he actually fought in.

The poem concludes with a juxtaposition of the two modes: “I could not love thee (dear) so much / lov’d I not honour more” (11-12). In these ending lines, Lovelace shows the purpose of these two apparently contrasting styles of language. The vagueness with which he discusses warfare ends in the ultimate statement of “honour,” distanced from the realities of the battlefield entirely – and it is the intimacy with which he addresses Lucasta that makes it possible to construct this final argument.