I don't know if this kind of question is allowed, so here we are:
If "nothing much to lose" means little to lose, then why does the poem "here dead lie", by EE Housman, says in the next line "but young men think it is". If both assertions are agreeing, what is the function of the contradictory "but"?
I won't copy the whole poem due to copyright, just cite the 3rd line "life is nothing much to lose", and the 4th "but young men think it is".
What am I missing? Or what kind of interpretative mistakes I'm making?