Epitaphs written on tombstones.
A walk through any cemetery still in use demonstrates the degree to which the tombstone epitaph has fallen out of favor in modern burial tradition. Once prevalent, now almost non-existant - as are tombstones themselves, come to think of it, thanks to the growing contemporary ubiquity of the memorial garden.
Some tombstone epitaphs show an almost flippant attitude (at least by today's standards) toward the deceased. Tombstone epitaphs of more than one line almost always rhymed, sometimes at the expense of truth.
Examples of tombstone epitaphs:
Here I lie and no wonder I'm dead
For the wheel of a wagon went over my head.
Beneath this stone our baby lays
He neither cries nor hollers
He lived just one and twenty days
And cost us forty dollars.