Prior to the Late Republic era in Rome the elegiac tradition looked much different. Most often, an elegiac poem reflects the dead or a lament to be read at a funeral. They got their name from being written in elegiac couplets. The Academy of American Poets notes that “The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace.” Vestiges of that tradition remain prevalent in the elegiac tradition that the Late Republic brings in. To this day, funeral elegy is a vibrant form of poetry.