What is the importance of Haddam in the poem, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird?

Haddam is referred to in canto seven when the narrator beseeches, “O thin men of Haddam” (7). This may refer to Haddam Connecticut, a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut, where Wallace Stevens lived and worked for much of his life. As some observers have noted, Haddam may also refer to an archaic turn of phrase for the venereal disease syphilis. In the context of canto seven this may cohere with the reference to blackbirds roaming at the feet of the men of Haddam’s women. This imagery may invoke prostitution, lust, and sexual licentiousness.