Poem of the week: On the Death of Dr Robert Levet by Samuel Johnson

"Well tried through many a varying year, See Levet to the grave descend; Officious, innocent, sincere, Of every friendless name the friend. Yet still he fills Affection's eye, Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind; Nor, lettered Arrogance, deny Thy praise to merit unrefined. When fainting Nature called for aid, And hovering Death prepared the blow, His vigorous remedy displayed The power of art without the show."

"This elegy by Samuel Johnson (1709-84) has always been one of my favourite poems in the genre. It forms a very small part of Johnson's magnificent literary achievement, and its scope is unambitious. What it succeeds in doing, as an elegy closer in style and diction to an 18th-century occasional poem, is a kind of mimesis: it adds up to a portrait of the admirable Dr Levet."

Robert Levet is presented as officious, innocent, and sincere, a devoted friend to the friendless whose obscure wisdom and coarse kindness earned quiet affection. He practiced medicine practically and effectively, displaying vigorous remedies without show and serving in misery's darkest places where hopeless anguish and lonely want prevailed. He accepted no delay in calls and scorned no petty gain; daily work supplied his modest needs. His virtues remained steady and modest, the single talent diligently employed. His death was sudden near his eightieth year. Levet lived in a household from the later 1740s and first pursued medicine after overhearing Parisian doctors while working as a waiter.

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