How does Richard Lovelace depict war in this excerpt from “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars”?
And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield. Yet this inconstancy is such, As you too shall adore; I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not honour more.

Question

How does Richard Lovelace depict war in this excerpt from “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars”? 
And with a stronger faith embrace A sword, a horse, a shield. Yet this inconstancy is such, As you too shall adore; I could not love thee, Dear, so much, Loved I not honour more.

osprey · Answer

Very interesting post. 
A possible "paraphrase".
"Hi Lucasta, I love you, yes, but I love honour/war more, and maybe because I love honour/war more, I love you."
What makes this interesting to me is a line attributed to General Patten in the film "Lust for Glory" starring George C Scott as Patten. P is on some battlefield somewhere during world war 2, and the line is "I love this more than I love myself", suggesting that as far as he is concerned the war can go on until he dies and he'll be happy. 
Indeed I think that his idea was that once the allies had taken what was left of Berlin (modern day counterpart = Aleppo, Syria ?) they should then march on Stalin and USSR. In the event, the European war ended really with the disappearance of the german chancellor, and the "cold war" began shortly thereafter. This seems to have been sort of what Patten was saying would happen. (Slightly obsessive people Lovelance and Patten ?)