my credo

a short poem that G. K. Chesterton had inscribed in a book of Caldecott's pictures (Randolph Caldecott: 19thC childrens' illustrator)

This is the sort of book we like
(For you and I are very small),
With pictures stuck in anyhow,
And hardly any words at all.
. . .
You will not understand a word
Of all the words, including mine;
Never you trouble; you can see,
And all directness is divine—

Stand up and keep your childishness:
Read all the pedants’ screeds and strictures;
But don’t believe in anything
That can’t be told in coloured pictures.

NB: previously posted elsewhere