In 1547 Edward VI's government issued Reformation injunctions that attacked images, shrines and traditional practices in English churches. The policy led to the destruction or covering of many rood screens and religious artworks. It changed the sensory world of worship for ordinary parish communities.

Iconoclasm reshaped English poetry by altering how writers imagined images, ritual and memory. The loss of visual culture helped push religious expression towards sermons, metrical psalms, polemical ballads and inward devotional language.