The only thing greater than man's capacity for love and compassion is his capacity for violence and more specifically, war. The concept of war has been has been present throughout the entire history of mankind. This element of our history has unwittingly become the architect of what we now know as the modern world. "To Lucasta" and "Dulce Et Decorum est" both deal with the idea and act of war, and this is where the similarities end. The dissimilar attitudes of Richard Lovelace's idyllic "To Lucasta" and Wilfred Owen's brutal "Dulce Et Decorum Est" can be understood best when examining the experience of the speaker, the value of honor, and the description of war in the two poems.
             The differences in view of these two poems have a great deal to do with the experience of the speaker. The speaker in "To Lucasta" has not been to war and is looking forward to the experience, whereas Owen is engaged in war and is dreading every second. In "To Lucasta" the speaker, shows a naivety towards war as anyone who has not experienced it would: "That from the nunnery Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind, To war and arms I fly" (3-4). On the other hand, in "Dulce Et Decorum Est" Owen effectively uses a simile to show the horror of being surrounded by war in the passage: "But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime" (11-12). Just as these poems show how differences in experience can alter the perception of war, they also show that these same differences can alter the concept of honor.
             The divergent concepts of the value of honor in the stories set the two poems apart. Lovelace romanticizes leaving a love for the glory and honor of sacrificing one's self for country, "I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not Honor more" (11-12). Unlike Lovelace, Owen makes no illu...