The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of nature in the poetry of Saint-Amant. The study was encouraged by the recently renewed interest of scholars in the work of Saint-Amant as well as by new scholarly studies on the subject of nature in early seventeenth-century French literature. Background chapters provide material supportive of the study itself. The first chapter investigates nature in the work of major poets of the early seventeenth century in order to characterize its general use throughout the period studied. The second documents the critical appraisal of Saint-Amant from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries and discusses the important twentieth-century scholarly studies of his life and work. Essentially according to Francoise Gourier's system of classifying Saint-Amant's poetry, selected poems were then studied with attention to the natural elements detected in them in order to characterize the forms and functions of nature throughout his poetry. It was concluded that Saint-Amant's use of nature follows conventional trends as well as shows a considerable originality. It was also shown that this particular facet of Saint-Amant's writing reflects tendencies seen throughout his poetry which characterize him as a poet of the baroque tradition
