"Matthew Arnold, the 19th Century poet, cultural critic and essayist will be remembered for many things. Some will know of him first as being the son of the famous Thomas Arnold who was the Master of Rugby School. Some may be amused by his work as a school inspector and others applaud him for his translation of Homer in 1861. For myself though, it was his beautiful simple words as a poet that moved me in admiration of the man:
'Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived the light in the spring, to have loved ,to have thought, to have done?'
Such simple truths stirred my imaginations in 1953 as I lay in a hospital bed dying from a traffic accident and having heard the doctor tell my parents that if I lived that I would never walk again.
If I could pass a law, I would seek to have this wise man's poetry established in our schools as required reading for every boy and girl of 11 years of age. In this way, they would live their adult lives more in the spirit of life's game: that is, when you have the ball in your hands, don't drop it, run with it!" William Forde: May 10th, 2013.