ABSTRACT
The second half of the sixteenth century witnessed the flourishing in French of poetry which focused upon the objects of natural philosophy, that is, upon cosmic phenomena and cosmic processes. However, the poems differ greatly from one another, in particular concerning their representation of causality, that is, the ways in which they account for cosmic change. Images are fundamental to the poetic style of the Sepmaine. As part of a particularly pronounced 'baroque' style, Huguenot Du Bartas often lists different images for the same object. Images do not always correspond clearly to a particular phenomenon or to a particular section of the argument. Of course descriptions of specific cosmic objects, such as a particular type of bird or plant, also play a role in the poet's conception of the cosmos; however, arguably underlying cosmic forces are of central importance for this, as well as constituting the more usual material of natural philosophy.
