The purpose of this study is to examine the poetry of Pernette du Guillet according to Renaissance poetic theory which was based on the interplay between imitation and invention in the creative process. Renaissance scholars believed that imitation provided the writer with his sources of inspiration and with examples to be assimilated through the process of innutrition and then changed and amplified by invention. Pernette creates her love poems using the prevailing love imagery of her time. Essentially a Neoplatonic love poet, her poems also reflect the influence of Petrarchism. She imitates specific authors who wrote within the Petrarchan and Neoplatonic traditions, including Petrarch himself, Bembo, Serafino, Chariteo, Maurice Sceve, and Mellin de Saint-Gelais. In addition to imitations of model authors, she also imitates the rhetoric and imagery of the Petrarchan and Neoplatonic codes To the Renaissance mind, invention was necessarily linked to imitation, since imitation served as the source of the author's inspiration. Part of Pernette's invention results from her combination of the Petrarchan and Neoplatonic codes and her development of contentement. Na(')ivete and humor both constitute a departure from Neoplatonic style and develop from native French influences, including the work of Marot. Pernette practices two major types of na(')ivete in the Rymes: (1) her creation of an intimate, conversational style, and (2) her outstanding experimentation with rhyme and form. Her humor includes playful banter, elegant wit, and clever manipulations of language. What makes her work distinct is her use of humor and na(')ivete in intimate love poetry. While these additions are unexpected in the works of the first Frenchwoman to write Neoplatonist love poems, they reflect the dynamic relationship of imitation and invention