Aided by scholarships, Delille was a brilliant student and taught Latin poetry at the Collège de France. His reputation was established with a verse translation of Virgil's Georgics (1770). Delille entered the French Academy at 36, translating the Aeneid in 1804 and Milton's Paradise Lost in 1805.

His own rather artificial poetry (Les Jardins, 1782; Les Trois Règnes de la nature, 1809) is dedicated to nature. Delille was supported for a period by the Abbey of Saint-Séverin but was an abbot in title alone; he actually married and traveled to Germany, England, and Switzerland. He was greatly honoured at his death with an impressive funeral, but his fame did not survive long afterward.