Flaxman's monument to the poet was funded by public subscription. As well as showing the poet in pious contemplation, it depicts a lyre left upon the floor, accompanied by a scrolled copy titled "The Passions: an ode", representing his abandonment of poetry. On the ridge over the memorial tablet, the female figures of love and piety are lying with arms about each other. Beneath is an epitaph by William Hayley which also makes reference to Johnson's anecdote of the poet "Who in reviving reason's lucid hours, | Sought on one book his troubled mind to rest, | And rightly deem'd the book of God the best."