Persona, Tone, and Irony in “Luke Havergal” The poem “Luke Havergal” by Edward Arlington Robinson is about Luke Havergal’s mourning of a dead love. Someone is telling him to go to the western gate where she will call to him. From my standpoint the poem does not have a specific speaker. From the line “Out of a grave I come to tell you this,” you can clearly see that the speaker of the poem is from beyond the grave but is not clearly pointed out. It could possibly be someone who once loved him or someone that loved her, but there is no direct evidence in the poem that points to that conclusion. There is an aching tone to the poem. From the line “Out of a grave I come to quench the kiss...,” you can see the implications that Havergal is mourning a woman who probably never knew the way he felt about her. If she did know, she probably never reciprocated that love. The depth of the love he feels for her is portrayed throughout the poem. One example is “...the kiss...that blinds you to the way you must go.” The love he feels for this woman is so intense that it blinds him from the truth. The speaker tells Havergal to go the western gate, which implies that only through the western gate of death can there be a true union of souls. In my opinion, the speaker is asking Havergal to kill himself to be with the woman he loves. What is ironic about the poem is that it seems as though Havergal is actually so blinded by the love he feels for her that he is actually going through with it. He goes to the western gate of death and expects his beloved to want him now....
