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Utilizing language to logically convey his conceits and exhibit standard poetic form, John Donnes poetry–The Flea’ and A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’–manifests the Enlightenments confined, orderly emphasis; in contrast, Samuel Taylor Coleridges Kubla Khan of the Romantic era creates a harmonious connection with nature through the poems alliteration and irregular meter. In The Flea, John Donne uses the physical flea as a means to communicate his sexual desires: And in this flea our two bloods mingled be; / & / This flea is you and I, and this / Our marriage bed and marriage temple is (Flea 4, 2-3). The flea representing their union of fluids and marriage, Donne projects his intent to make love to the woman in the poem through this logical metaphor. Furthermore, in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, Donne uses a compass as a physical representation of their inseparable spiritual love, describing [o]ur two souls (Forbidding 2) as stiff twin compasses (Forbidding 26); Donne parallels their souls metaphysical linkage to the legs of a compass inability to be permanently separated. Donne also utilizes a consistent stanza length and rhyme scheme of AABBCCDDD in The Flea’ and ABAB in A Valedicti

on: Forbidding Mourning’ and a constant iambic beat with an oscillating meter of tetrameter and pentameter in the Flea and an unchanging beat and meter of iambic tetrameter in A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, displaying the Enlightenments priority of ordered expression over any possible deviation from the poetic form. Seeking to reverse the Enlightenments orderly rationale, Samuel Taylor Coleridge organically uses language to depict a profound, transcendental connection with nature rather than physical representations of conceits; in Kubla Khan, he incorporates alliteration in sunless sea (Kubla 5), cedarn cover (Kubla 23), miles meandering (Kubla 25), and mingled measure (Kubla 33), adding a slow, calm musical element to the poem that allows the reader to unconsciously absorb the nature being described and develop a deeper connection with it rather than to be directed by the author to do so. Additionally, Coleridge integrates an inconsistent stanza length and rhyme scheme throughout Kubla Khan and uses an iambic beat with a differing meter for each line, often deviating from the Enlightenments confined limits shown in Donnes poetry in favor of the unrestricted expression of his form of beauty.