Can anyone identify this poetry anthology for children?

Cafe Society
1

So this guy I know was trying to think of a good gift for a 7 year old girl (his niece) who loves to read, and I suggested a collection of poems. When I was that age, I had a much-loved anthology of “children’s poetry” that I read until it was falling apart. But I cannot, for the life of me, remember what it was called. Thought I’d turn to the hive mind of the SDMB and see if y’all have any better luck!

Here are the few clues I can remember:

  • It was a large format book (like the size of a coffee table book) and a hardback. The cover was primarily white, I think, with a few illustrations.
  • Although it was a children’s anthology, the poems in it were not actually originally written for children. They were classic romantic poems, mostly from the 19th and early 20th century, if I remember correctly.
  • I clearly remember a few poems – “The Tyger” by William Blake, “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes, and “Young Lochinvar” by Sir Walter Scott. I also remember a poem called “The Gypsy’s Daughter” or something along those lines. There was probably something by Tennyson too. Yeah, that was the kind of kid I was.
  • The poems were illustrated. A lot of children’s anthologies I’ve seen while searching had silly or humorous illustrations, but these were relatively straight-forward and “grown up” looking. In particular, I remember the illustration of “The Highwayman” looked an awful lot like this.
  • The book may have been from the UK–my mother is Scottish and would often bring back books for us when she traveled abroad. This would probably have been sometime in the early '90s, so it must have been published before then.

Help me out, SDMB! I really want this boy to like me. :o

2

It sounds very much like a book I had as a kid (I’m 53). Some of the poems I remember were “Old Father William”, The Walrus and the Carpenter, Three Little Fishes, and an assortment of Christopher Milne’s poems among others. IIRC the drawings were mostly B&W pen and ink not color.

3

This information matches my copy of The Golden Treasury of Poetry, Selected and with a Commentary by Louis Untermeyer. It has the poems you mention (including one called “The Raggle Taggle Gypsies”). The illustrations are by Joan Walsh Anglund.
It’s copyright 1959 by the Golden Press, Inc.

4

On second thought “Three little fishes” was actually a song I am conflating with the poem where there are successive numbers of animals (parents and child animals) and I can’t remember the title of that poem.

5

Wow! That’s it! That’s the one I remember at least.

I’m not the OP but thanks!

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7

I bought The Random House Anthology of Poetry for Children for my daughter when she was little. Could that be it?