The exact words
“On that best portion of a good man's life; His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love.”William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, lines 34–36, in Lyrical Ballads (1798)
✓ VerifiedFound in a primary source: the original book, speech transcript, letter or recording.
What people get wrong
Common reading
A poem about kindness.
A poem about kindness.
Closer to the original
The lines are about memory and nature. Wordsworth says that remembering the beautiful landscape in hard times calmed him and may have shaped the small kindnesses he did without thinking. The kindness is a quiet side effect of a mind at peace.
The lines are about memory and nature. Wordsworth says that remembering the beautiful landscape in hard times calmed him and may have shaped the small kindnesses he did without thinking. The kindness is a quiet side effect of a mind at peace.
Timeline
- July 1798Wordsworth revisits the Wye Valley with his sister Dorothy, five years after his first visit, and composes the poem on the walk back to Bristol.
- October 1798The poem closes Lyrical Ballads, the book Wordsworth wrote with Samuel Taylor Coleridge that helped start the Romantic movement in English poetry.
- TodayThe phrase is often quoted alone, in eulogies and on sympathy cards.
Use it in a speech
Wordsworth wrote that the best portion of a good life is its little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. Mom's life was full of them. Today, we remember.
~11 secondsto say aloud
Pauseafter “and of love”
Best spotthe closing of the eulogy
Wordsworth spoke of “little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.” Your father did so many of them for us. We will not forget.
~9 secondsto say aloud
Pausenone needed in a card
Best spotthe main line of the card
Thank you for all the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love, as Wordsworth put it. I remember them.
~7 secondsto say aloud
Pausenone needed in a card
Best spotthe whole card
Questions people ask
Who wrote “little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love”?
William Wordsworth, in Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey (1798).
What poem is “little, nameless, unremembered acts” from?
Tintern Abbey, the last poem in Lyrical Ballads (1798).
Cite this quote
These cite the original source directly, so you can use them in an essay or paper. Always check your teacher's required style.
MLAWordsworth, William. “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.” 1798. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9622.
APAWordsworth, W. (1798). Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9622
CHICAGOWilliam Wordsworth, “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” 1798.
IN TEXT (APA)(Wordsworth, 1798)