Today is the 461st anniversary of the birthday of William Shakespeare. As a literature teacher, I honor our English language bard, and have taught him frequently. However, almost every year I have taught a lesson around Taylor Swift’s lyrics, because I believe she has a lot of beautiful and powerful poetry, presented in the form of song lyrics.

I ran into these two videos where totally different groups were trying to decide whether the quotes came from Shakespeare or Taylor Swift.

The first one was from PBS, who was quizzing some actors actually performing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:

The second is from some younger people who are in some kind of racing organization? Prema Racing? But they are so much fun:

I’ll admit that while I appreciate Taylor Swift, both as an artist and a woman of power, I’m not a “Swiftie.” I think she’s amazing, but I can’t keep up with all the songs she releases. I don’t really know most of her songs.

This was a really fun challenge for me. There were only a few questions that I KNEW I KNEW the answer…both on the Shakespeare and the Swift side. Overall, I did well, but not 100% on either one.

So give it a shot. Can you tell William from Taylor? Post your scores below (if you are willing). I may even come up with a prize for the grand winner.

And Happy Birthday Anniversary, William Shakespeare. You continue to inform, entertain, and inspire us, although your life experience was so different from our own. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us.