Ghost Poetry Anthology for Children

[H_P_Saucecraft]

I'm hoping someone is going to be able to help me with this. I remember this one from when I was at school, but have no idea about the title or the editor.

The cover had a cowled skeleton with one eye holding a crystal ball & I think beckoning with one finger. I seem to remember the anthology containing poems called 'Dickey' & 'The Watcher'. I think there was also one about 2 kids finding a tomb that said 'not dead, only sleeping'. I've tried a search on google under 'The Watcher' but had no success. Any Ideas? this has been annoying me for years.

Also, while I remember, I read an illustrated horror anthology at school (& again can't remember title & editor) but I do remember two stories it contained. One about Natterjack toads becoming a nuisance; The other was about Apazauca spiders, where one was killed, but as they travel in pairs the other bit the killer.

I would love to solve these, grateful for any help.

[H_P_Saucecraft]

Over 2 years later & I've found some additional info about the poetry book. The poem 'Dicky' is by Robert Graves, but doing a search for appearances of this poem is a minefield. Would still love to know the title of this book, so I can set about finding it - any ideas?

[lemming13]

I know Dicky is included in a collection called Country Sentiment by Graves, as I found it recently online at Project Gutenberg. Can't help with the anthology, though. Wasn't the Watcher by Walter de la Mare?

[H_P_Saucecraft]

I don't know about The Watcher, I only remember the title - if I've even remembered that properly . Even finding the cover is a nightmare, I have a vague idea it might have been published by Penguin.

[Dr Strange]

I don't think The Watcher is a de la Mare title - don't suppose you are thinking of The Listeners, which is probably his most famous poem?

No help to you - but Flannan Isle by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson had a big impact on me as a kid, and I think he wrote quite a few other "macabre" poems (the other one I read as a kid was The Blind Rower).

[lemming13]

You might be right about the de la Mare, Doc. Still not found your anthology, HP, but I have come across a huge collection called The Haunted Hour edited by Margaret Widdemer and published in 1920 by Harcourt, Brace and Howe, Inc, New York. Working my way through it, here's a contents list as far as I have got. The headings in bold indicate subsections created by the editor, and might originally have captioned illustrations.
The Far Away Country - Nora Hopper Chesson
The Nicht Atween the Sancts an’ Souls
All-Souls - Katherine Tynan
All-Saints’ Eve - Lizette Woodworth
A Dream - William Allingham
The Neighbors - Theodosia Garrison
A Ballad of Hallowe’en - Theodosia Garrison
The Forgotten Soul- Margaret Widdemer
All-Souls’ Night - Dora Sigerson Shorter
Janet’s Tryst - George Macdonald
Hallows’ E’en - Winifred M Letts
On Kingston Bridge - Ellen M H Cortissoz
All-Souls’ Night - Louisa Humphreys
All the Little Sighing Souls
Mary Shepherdess - Marjorie L C Pickthall
The Little Ghost - Katherine Tynan
Two Brothers - Theodosia Garrison
The Little Dead Child - Josephine Daskam Bacon
The Child Alone - Rosamund Marriott Watson
The Child - Theodosia Garrison
Such Are the Souls in Purgatory - Anna Hempstead Branch
The Open Door - Rosamund Marriott Watson
My Laddie’s Hounds - Marguerite Elizabeth Easter
The Old House - Katherine Tynan
Shadowy Heroes
Ballad of the Buried Sword - Ernest Rhys
The Looking-Glass - Rudyard Kipling
Drake’s Drum - Henry Newbold
The Grey Ghost - Francis Carlin
Ballad of Douglas Bridge - Francis Carlin
The Indian Burying Ground - Philip Freneau
Rank On Rank of Ghostly Soldiers
The Song of Soldiers - Walter de la Mare
By the Blockhouse On the Hill - Helen Gray Cone
Night at Gettysburg - Don C Seitz
The Riders - Katherine Tynan
The White Comrade - Robert Haven Schauffler
Ghosts of the Argonne - Grantland Rice
November Eleventh - Ruth Comfort Mitchell
Sea Ghosts
The Flying Dutchman - Charles Godfrey Leland
The Phantom Ship - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Phantom Light of the Baie des Chaleurs - Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton
The Sands of Dee - Charles Kingsley
The Lake of the Dismal Swamp - Thomas Moore
The Flying Dutchman of the Tappan Zee - Arthur Guiterman
The White Ships and the Red - Joyce Kilmer
Featherstone’s Doom - Robert Stephen Hawker
Sea-Ghosts - May Byron
Fog Wraiths - Mildred Howells

[lemming13]

Haunted Hour - part 2.
Cheerful Spirits
Cape Horn Gospel - John Masefield#
The Legend of Hamilton Tighe - Richard Harris Barham
The Supper Superstition - Thomas Hood
The Ingoldsby Penance - Richard Harris Barham
Pompey’s Ghost - Thomas Hood
Mary’s Ghost - Thomas Hood
The Superstitious Ghost - Arthur Guiterman
Dave Lilly - Joyce Kilmer
Martin - Joyce Kilmer
Haunted Places
The Listeners - Walter de la Mare
Haunted Houses - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Beleaguered City - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Newport Romance - Bret Harte
A Legend - Mary Kendall
A Midnight Visitor - Elizabeth Akers Allen
Haunted - Amy Lowell
The Little Green Orchard - Walter de la Mare
Fireflies - Louise Driscoll
The Little Ghost - Edna St Vincent Millay
Haunted - Louis Untermeyer
Ghosts - Madison Gawein
The Three Ghosts - Theodosia Garrison
You Know the Old, While I Know the New
After Death - Christina Rossetti
The Passer-By - Edith M Thomas
At Home - Christina Rossetti
The Return - Minna Irving
The Room’s Width - Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward
Haunted - Don Marquis
My Love That Was So True
One Out-of-Doors - Sarah Piatt
Sailing Beyond Seas - Jean Ingelow
Betrayal - Aline Kilmer
The True Lover - A E Housman
Haunted - G B Stuart
The White Moth - Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
The Ghost - Walter de la Mare
Luke Havergal - Edwin Arlington Robinson
The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes
The Blue Closet - William Morris
The Ghost’s Petition - Christina Rossetti
He and She - Sir Edwin Arnold

[lemming13]

Last batch of titles from Haunted Hour.
My Love That Was So True
One Out-of-Doors - Sarah Piatt
Sailing Beyond Seas - Jean Ingelow
Betrayal - Aline Kilmer
The True Lover - A E Housman
Haunted - G B Stuart
The White Moth - Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
The Ghost - Walter de la Mare
Luke Havergal - Edwin Arlington Robinson
The Highwayman - Alfred Noyes
The Blue Closet - William Morris
The Ghost’s Petition - Christina Rossetti
He and She - Sir Edwin Arnold
Shapes of Doom
The Dead Coach - Katherine Tynan
Deid Folks’ Ferry - Rosamund Marriott Watson
Keith of Ravelston- Sydney Dobell
The Fetch - Dora Sigerson Shorter
The Banshee - Dora Sigerson Shorter
The Seven Whistlers - Alice E Gillington
The Victor - Theodosia Garrison
Mawgan of Melhuach - Robert Stephen Hawker
The Mother’s Ghost - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Dead Mother - Robert Buchanan
Legends and Ballads of the Dead
The Folk of the Air - William Butler Yeats
The Reconciliation - A Margaret Ramsay
The Priest’s Brother - Dora Sigerson Shorter
The Ballad of Judas Iscariot - Robert Buchanan
The Eve of St John - Walter Scott
Fair Margaret’s Misfortunes - Anon
Sweet William’s Ghost - Anon
Clerk Saunders - Anon
The Wife of Usher’s Well - Anon
A Lyke-Wake Dirge - Anon
It's a pretty awesome collection, I'm dipping and enjoying it in spite of the odd outbreak of ghastly sentimentality (I may even share some of it with the rest of the vaulters, just for spite).