How does W. S. Merwin use imagery in Horizons of Rooms?

The imagery of the poem displays an elemental surrealism that suggests the artificiality of the modern constructed spaces and the individual's subconscious response to them. The rooms themselves, as well as the movement in and out of them, express an unconscious realm of experience, reinforced by the lack of descriptive details. The only room the inhabitants appear to express a conscious appreciation of it is nature's "room," where beating hearts echo off of walls, and hands and voices emerge. When the speaker shifts the focus to modern rooms, the inhabitants appear in a dream-like state, moving from room to room without purpose and without noting any differentiating qualities. The only activity that occurs in these rooms is sleeping, again reinforcing the unconscious nature of the experience within them. These surrealist elements reinforce the sense of nothingness experienced by the characters in the modern world, who have constructed spaces that isolate them from nature.