Although later sonneteers like Shakespeare and Ben Jonson play with the Petrarchan tradition, the first really significant change in the genre occurred at the end of the 16th century, when religion gradually displaced love as the primary subject of the sonnet, setting in motion a thematic shift that would lead to even greater innovation in later years.
Donne was the first to express and fully develop the potential of the form the expression of religious faith. In his Holy Sonnets (written mainly 1608-10), he explores his obsessions with death and salvation.
Donne changed the face of the sonnet in several ways:
- His sonnets focus on religious topics.
- He experiments with form and structure: many of his poems do not follow the traditional octave-sestet division.
- His sonnets are remarkable for how they dignify the genre: they show how a form often used to showcase a poet's wit and technique, or to express oft-repeated sentiments of love, could be adapted to provide a forum for intense religious sentiments.
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