Abstract
<jats:p>This article examines Jacques Delille’s Les Trois Règnes de la nature (1808) as a major example of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century scientific poetry and reassesses its poetic and epistemological ambitions. Long regarded by critics as overly descriptive or aesthetically “cold,” the poem has often been cited as evidence of the decline of didactic verse. Drawing on recent scholarship, especially Nicolas Leblanc’s analysis of the poetics of emotion, the study argues that Delille’s work deliberately integrates scientific knowledge with affective and aesthetic strategies. Through extensive enumerations, episodic narratives, mythological digressions, and personal reflections, Les Trois Règnes seeks not only to transmit encyclopedic knowledge but also to engage readers emotionally and to cultivate a sense of wonder toward nature. The article situates the poem within Enlightenment debates on the legitimacy of poetic discourse in science and shows that Delille’s project does not oppose reason and sensibility but instead relies on their interaction. Reconsidered from this perspective, scientific poetry emerges not as a failed hybrid but as a distinctive literary form that mediates between knowledge, emotion, and the experience of the natural world.</jats:p>