Relying most heavily on music and metaphor, syntax and diction, Two Rooms explores the conflicting claims of life and art, world and word, cultural heritage and cultural affinities, through the sacral, erotic, and creative imagination. By the light of these dark lyrics, Constance Merritt searches for a path, a sign, a respite—perhaps love or death or God or insight, perhaps radical transformation or a simple good night's sleep. In these poems, by turns passionate, sinuous, playful and grave, a deep and abiding trust in "the plain sense of things" and intractable longing for the "lush, desire-transfigured world" meet and wrestle to a dynamic draw.