Wadsworth vs. Wordsworth

For the longest time in grade school, I confused William Wordsworth with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I could never remember which one was the Gitche Gumee guy who envisioned shining Big-Sea-Water and which one wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills. No amount of stern coaxing from my fourth-grade teacher, "Miss Glenn," would do the trick.

Then one day it hit me: one of these guys was British and loved flowers, the other was American and loved Indians. Why that helped, I'll never know. But it did. I have kept them separate and fairly in their own quarters ever since.

Thus, when Garrison Keillor told us yesterday in his Writer's Almanac that it was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's birthday, I instantly knew he was not British. I did not know which birthday it was for Henry until I looked it up (how quaint is this?)in my printed-paper, hardbound encyclopedia.

So Happy 201st, dear Henry. In my giddy celebration, I also looked up the birthdate and age of your pal Mr. Wordsworth. He will be 237 in April. I trust you both are enjoying the long rest, the peace and quiet of Poet's Corner at Westminster Abbey.

But now I have a new problem: which of you is which, now that I see from your pictures that you both were bald with white-tufted ears, had long skinny noses and wore bushy white beards??