Believed that poetry should have subject matter, so as to provide the substance needed for the art to fulfill its function.

Born in 1942 in Cincinnati Ohio. William Matthews achieved a B.A at Yale and later an M.A from the university of North Carolina. During his life he achieved many things including serving as the president of Associated Writing Programs and the Poetry Society of America. He published eleven books in his lifetime such as ‘Time and Money’ (1996) and several more collections were published posthumously. Matthews was awarded several prizes, his book Time and Money won the National Books Critics circle award and in 1997 he was awarded the Ruth Lilly Prize. He also received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Ingram Merill foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts and the