The Slave Nature of Love Exposed in Lucretius In Dryden's Lucretius, the speaker argues that (1) love is a disease, (2) disease of love enslaves and (3) all attempts at remedy The diseases of love are in vain and will only frustrate the lover. Just as Milton's Adam and Eve become slaves to sin by disobeying God, so humanity becomes a slave to Love when pierced by Cupid's "winged arrow." In Milton there is redemption and freedom through Christ, but in Dryden no salvation by love is possible. This poem leaves humanity in a frustrated and hopeless state, unable to free itself from the yoke of love. This essay will focus on the last heroic couplet: “They try in every way, but try without success, / To cure the secret plague of persistent love.” To demonstrate the first premise, this essay will begin by examining the last line of the couplet which claims that the lovers are trying to "cure the secret plague." This phrase suggests the idea that love is a plague that needs a cure, but it also raises two questions: (1) why does the speaker call love a secret plague? And (2) how does the speaker use these images in the rest of the poem? In the poem's mythology, love is a plague left by Love's arrow (probably alluding to Cupid's handiwork) as described in the first line of the poem: "he who feels the fiery dart / Of strong desire pierces his heart loving". The “secret wound” can also refer to the idea that the wound of Love is hidden (like an internal injury), and therefore cannot be helped by external/physical remedies. The speaker argues that even sex proves futile in the attempt to cure love: “Our hands pull nothing from the parts that strain, / But wander…in the middle of the paper…less appetite.” It seems as if the speaker is trying to frustrate the lover by offering impossible remedies. The speaker amplifies the frustration by using an eye rhyme to end the poem. This does not show Dryden's lack of skill, but rather a way to frustrate the reader's rhyme. The last heroic couplet provides no hope and leaves only frustrating thoughts for the lover: "All the ways they try, unsuccessfully all they try, / To cure the secret plague of lingering love." The speaker even argues that although Nature provides satisfaction for physical urges (e.g. hunger and thirst), Nature does not give Love the same satisfaction. The speaker describes the lover as a kind of Sisyphus, enslaved in a vicious circle of trying to complete the task (of satisfying love's desires), only to see the problem relapse and having to start over again..