John McCrae 
In Flanders Fields and Other Poems 

In Flanders Fields is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John Mc Crae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after Mc Crae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it. "In Flanders Fields" was first published on December 8 of that year in the London-based magazine Punch. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)