Since April is National Poetry Month, I searched for lodging to fit the occasion. The historic 1889 White Gate Inn& Cottage in Asheville North Carolina, is it. Here, poetry is celebrated throughout. If you don’t feel like penning a poem, or at least reading one during your stay, you have serious writer’s block or great literature leaves you cold. There are eleven poets in all whose work takes center stage in each guest room or suite.
For example, in the Emily Dickinson Suite, two rooms of loveliness, there are framed photos of Dickinson, volumes of her poetry, and a wooden writer’s desk to call up your muse. There’s the elegant fireplace, the four-poster queen-size bed, and the pastel hues that evoke thoughts of nature and contemplation. The rooms’ expansive windows look over the inn’s award-winning gardens appointed with a koi pond, waterfalls and flowerbeds.
Bathroom in the Walt Whitman Suite
Other poets honored with elegant furnishings and fixtures are: Walt Whitman Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, Carl Sandburg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joyce Kilmer, Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde and Elizabeth Barett Browning.
All but two options– The Robert Frost and The Dorothy Parker, are suites.
Although each room and suite seems as lovely as the next, the Walt Whitman Suite turns up luxury a notch with a two-person jacuzzi bathtub with a stone fireplace next to it.
The Guest Cottage, original to the property is an ode to William Carlos Williams. Guests who stay here can either cook their meals in the cottage’s kitchen or savor breakfast in the inn.
Part of a 3-course gourmet breakfast
The AAA Four-Diamond inn’s dining room, living room, parlor, and solarium are other places to relax and enjoy the ambiance of one of Asheville’s gems.
Breakfast, by the way, is a three-course gourmet meal that includes scrumptious dishes like Peaches, Pears, and Pineapples baked in a brown sugar sherry sauce; Mushroom Tarragon Souffle’; and Homebaked Cinnamon Maple Caramel Pecan Rolls. For exercise, along with the gardens designed for strolling, the inn has an exercise room.
Here is a verse from the poem “Ample Make This Bed” by Emily Dickenson. It seems like the perfect poem for a traveler.
Ample make this bed.
Make this bed with awe;
In it wait till judgment break
Excellent and fair.
You can read the rest of the poem on the Emily Dickenson Suite page.
A waterfall in the inn’s garden
For poems by the other poets, click through the suites and rooms pages. Each includes a poem by the poet who is honored by the inn.
1889 WhiteGate Inn & Cottage
173 E. Chestnut Street
Asheville, NC 28801
innkeeper@whitegate.net
www.whitegate.net
Toll Free: 1-800-485-3045
Phone: 1-828-253-2553
Photos courtesy of 1889 White Gate Inn and Cottage
