WILLIAM BLAKE AND THE PROPHETIC VOICES OF DISSIDENT TRADITION

In Fearful Symmetry, Frye comments on the need to undo the "myth that Blake is a literary freak" (FRYE, 1990, p. 147). On the assumption that there continue to be resonances from this myth, this paper looks at the affinity between William Blake's poetic work and the dissident English tradition, a relationship that is rarely discussed by experts on the poet in Brazil. The paper reviews the existing literature on the subject and, via the work of Mee (1992, 1994, 2003) and Makdisi (2003), it assesses the antinomian angle of Blake's writings in order to explain the assumed ideas of "prophet" and "prophecy" in his prophetic poems.