Haddam

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.

Connecticut

The state of Connecticut appears in the allusion to Haddam in canto seven and in the eleventh canto in which the unnamed man in a glass coach rides over Connecticut. The physical landscape of Connecticut is never explicitly described in the poem. However, the snowy vistas are not entirely out of place for a northeastern...