The greatest of early French poets was Ronsard, who wrote sonnets about nature and love in the 16th century. Lamartine, a major poet of the early 19th century, also took nature as one of his themes (his poem Le Lac laments a lost love).
Later the same century, Baudelaire (Les Fleurs du mal) and Rimbaud (Le Bateau Ivre) were judged to be provocative in their day. Nobel prizewinner in 1904, Frédéric Mistral wrote in his native Provençal tongue. The greatest poet of this century is considered to be Paul Valéry, whose work is profoundly philosophical.