Michael's friends

[andrew]

A poem Rupert Buxton wrote at the age of 15, entitled "Life":

Our life is like the mist of an autumn day,
Which shouds the landscape but an hour or so:
And Death is the sun which drives it all away!
Then why should we fear to go?

Our eyes are blinded by the mists of life:
We struggle after this or that dim ray:
Why should we fear - after an hour of strife -
To reach the eternal day?

[Malain]

First off may I say that this website is amazing!
Never have I seen such great information about sucha  fascinating subject.

I'm having trouble finding the Buxton picture.
I went to the database and typed Buxton in the search engine and
got no results. In fact with any word I typed I got no images.
Does anyone have a direct web link to the pictures?

Also in my research pertaining to Michaels death are
there any police reports available. Really intriguing are
the suicide Vs accident arguement. My take, which is
purely speculation is that both are true. Maybe
Michael went into the water as a suicide attempt and
Rupert swam in to save him, only to drown himself.
One thing I wonder about is the bound at the wrists
fact. Is there any truth to this, and if so what evidence?

[Malain]

Oh also, thanks for that Buxton poem Andrew.
Does anyone have good transcriptions of Michaels poems.
I had a hard time reading the hand writing and I know
I got some of the words wrong. This is what I got:

Can't Find The Other - It's Even Worse.

I stand of sheep, whose wreathed time delays,
haven of things remdte indulgente, tree,
Those whose searching wants in autumn days
veiled the inlimder on thy seacry;
he there beheld bright flowers in a dream
join with tall trees to cheat the Cyprian,
and heard in murmurs of a woodland shcam
Arcadian measures if resurgent Pan;

Yet will not touch again thy perfumed shore
and mount the coloured slope beneath the trees
a twere release his senses ever more
to tread the foot prints of old deitier,
So thou do not send echoes to remind
of those sweet pipes, and charm him from his kind.

-------------------------------------------
Throned on a drift scene,  man saw th sun
hold a nad torch above the farthest seas,
and the fierce island puminades put on
in his defence than sombre panoplias;
Foremost the white mists eddied hailed and spun
like seekers enulons to clasp his knees;
led by the secret whispers of the breeze.

The sun's torch suddenly flashed upon his face
and died; and he sat content in subject night
and dreamed of an old dead foe taht had sought and found him
a beast stoned boldly in his resting place;
and the cold came; man arose to his master height
shivered, and turned away; but the mists were round him.

[ecb]

Here is the direct link to Rupert Buxton's picture:

http://www.jmbarrie.co.uk/allscans/fullsize/1920-00-00-PX-Rupert_Buxton.jpg

A nice looking lad!

[andrew]

Malain, I'm immensly grateful to you for having transcribed Michael's poems, particularly "Island of Sleep" as I don't think I'd reread it for over 20 years, and of course "encircling mists in autumn days" put me in touch with my own son Anno (who was killed in thick mist in November 2001 - there's more about him at anno.co.uk, where on the intro page there's a link to a BBC Radio 4 play I did about Anno and Michael, so you'll understand where I'm coming from).

Just for the record, my own transcription of Michael's two poems are as follows:

Throned on a cliff, secure, Man saw the sun
hold a red torch above the farthest seas,
and the fierce island pinnacles put on
in his defence their sombre panoplies;
Foremost the white mists eddied, trailed and spun
like seekers, emulous to clasp his knees;
led by the secret whispers of the breeze.

The sun's torch suddenly flashed upon his face
and died; and he sat content in subject night
and dreamed of an old dead foe that had sought and found him;
a beast stoned boldly in his resting place;
and the cold came; Man arose to his master-height,
shivered, and turned away; but the mists were round him.

Eilean Chona [actually Eilean Shona, an island off the west coast of Scotland, where Michael wrote the poem in August 1920]



Island of sleep, where wreathéd Time delays,
   haven of things remote, indulgent, free,
Thou whose encircling mists in autumn days
   veiled the intruder on thy secrecy;
he there beheld bright flowers in a dream
   join with tall trees to cheat the Cyprian,
and heard in murmurs of a woodland stream
   Arcadian measures of resurgent Pan;

Yet will not touch again thy perfumed shore
   and mount the coloured slope beneath the trees
or there release his senses ever more
   to tread the foot-prints of old deities,
   so thou do not send echoes to remind
   of those sweet pipes, and charm him from his kind.

[Malain]

Thank you ecb for the picture link and thank you Andrew for the correct transcription of Michael's poems.

I checked out the BBC link and that broadcast was really spectacular.
I'm deeply sorry about Anno, the parallels you make between
Michael and Anno as well as Barrie and you in the play are
eerie and uncanny. Truly moving. I now grapple with who is
more intriguing Michael or Anno.

I had a couple questions about the broadcast,
where is this poem from:

Time alone spent thinking
Drinking sorrow in its purest form
Time spent waiting for Tomorrow
Time or lack there of is taking over
My grave is getting closer
And though I am miles away my arms are open
and I'm hoping for an accident
some tragic intervention of the gods

Is it one of Michaels poems? Its beautiful.

Also during the broadcast there is a soundclip,
I believe of an Anno song with lyrics:

"A softness place at the foot of my grave I gave myself
in all to childish hope and promise"

What song is this, and where can I hear the full version?
It is awesome. I came searching for answers about
Michael and now I have more questions about him and
now Anno.

[andrew]

"Time alone spent thinking" is one of Anno's poems (read by his mother, Bee); the song is "Touched" (also Anno), the line being "I saw from this place at the foot of my grave / I gave myself in awe to childish hope and promise."  Both poems (and many others) are in Anno's book "Who Said the Race Is Over?" which you can get from Amazon (all proceeds to Anno's Africa charity) - the book is also on line - just click on the index link on anno.co.uk.  There's a video of "Touched" on YouTube - also other video clips - just search for "Anno Birkin". 

As to who is the more intruiging, Michael or Anno, I'm really too biased to answer... and in fairness to Michael, there are only those 2 poems to judge him by, whereas Anno left behind well over 700, as well as 40+ songs....

[Malain]

It is all so very sad, death in general but particularly when a person is
very talented and even more so when they are gone at such a young age.
Oh life. Annos vocal styling is beautiful, reminds me of Jeff Buckley.
Searched on Amazon for the book, but could only find one used copy
in the UK. I am too impatient to wait so I'll search New York City
for a new copy, browsed through the online edition and the poetry
seems amazing, can't wait to find a hard copy.
Thank you.

[andrew]

Many thanks for that. In fact amazon.co.uk sell new copies as well as 2nd hand. I've answered your entanglement question under Michael's death....

[Nicholas]

The head of the Buxton family has sent me quite a large number of letters of Rupert's, mainly to his mother, but also to other members of his family, and letters about Rupert, particularly letters of condolence.  Some of these will appear in an article I am preparing for the website, but not all.  If people are interested, I will prepare transcriptions of all these letters, but it will take time.  Please say if you are interested. 

Also, Rupert had invested and was acting in a film in the last weeks of his life.  Does anyone out there know about the British film industry in 1921, and whether this film could be identified?

[andrew]

Many thanks for all your work, Nicholas - I shall add your scans to the database asap. Having read Rupert's letters to his mother and grandmother, I'm beginning to see why Boothby thought him "dark" and an "unhealthy" influence on Michael... not in any obvious sense, but his constant reference to God and the hereafter, together with his reoccuring refrain that life is a vale of tears, might lead one to suppose that he was not exactly an optimist - particularly to a man like Boothby, who was so clearly the life and soul (and bore?) of the party. Fascinating stuff, and thanks again to Nicholas for his excavations.

[andrew]

Dear Nicholas,

I emailed the imdb people (I subscribe to their pro version) to find out how one could access info for all British films made in 1921, re your Rupert Buxton query. Here's their response:

Dear Andrew,

There are a couple of ways that you can search for this title.

If you think that it was made in England in 1921, you can use the advanced title search on IMDbPro.com here: http://pro.imdb.com/search/

Click on 'create title query'.

In the 'release date' section, put 01/1921 and 12/1921 in the to and from boxes. Then scroll down to the business and box office section and select the UK box.

Then, click 'run query' and on the results page, click on 'show all'.
--
Or, you can perform a power search on the regular IMDb.com: http://imdb.com/list

in the 'Country of Origin' field, put UK, and in the 'Year' section, put 1921. If you know things about the plot, then you can try putting down a genre or keywords to help narrow your search.

Best of luck!

----
Regards,
Katie
The IMDbPro.com Help Desk

[Nicholas]

Unfortunately Arthur Bryant did not mention the name of the film, or the production company.  The BFI database has no note of his name, but Rupert could have used a pseudonym.  So many company records and prints of films have been lost, it will probably be impossible to identify this particular film.