"In Flanders Fields" is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the first world war by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over a 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 McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it. "In Flanders Fields" was first published on December 8 London-based magazine Punch.