Song of the Powers: A Poetic Warning

Bo Brusco | July 13, 2020

"Rock, Paper, Scissors" by Jesse Kruger is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Song of the Powers

In 1996, David Mason, an American poet, published a poem titled “Song of the Powers.” It begins with a rock boastfully exclaiming its power over a pair of scissors—a seemingly benign premise we frequently encountered during our elementary school years. In the end though, what the poem conveys about power ought to weigh a little more heavily than a rock on our minds.

Song of the Powers

By David Mason

Mine, said the stone,

mine is the hour.

I crush the scissors,

such is my power.

Stronger than wishes,

my power, alone.

Mine, said the paper,

mine are the words

that smother the stone

with imagined birds,

reams of them, flown

from the mind of the shaper.

Mine, said the scissors,

mine all the knives

gashing through paper’s

ethereal lives;

nothing’s so proper

as tattering wishes.

As stone crushes scissors,

as paper snuffs stone

and scissors cut paper,

all end alone.

So heap up your paper

and scissor your wishes

and uproot the stone

from the top of the hill.

They all end alone

as you will, you will.

Image of David Mason from csindy.com

A Brief Analysis: Power Corrupts and Leads to Ruin

Power is an apparent topic throughout this poem, but a more specific motif is the selfish nature of those who own power and how they are subject to corruption. Mason focuses the reader’s attention on this selfish aspect by reiterating the possessive pronoun “mine” in each stanza, having the first three speakers begin their respective declarations with it. Their words express an obsessive ownership of power, making it obvious that they use this power to fulfill vain desires. The escalation of violent imagery within these three stanzas also illustrates how people who possess power are prone to become corrupted by it. This is most clearly evident when the pair of scissors speaks in the third stanza because it implies a sense of pleasure in using its power to forcibly thrash its opponent. After describing how it can destroy the “ethereal lives” of paper, it says that, “nothing’s so proper / as tattering wishes,” expressing its satisfaction with the demise of its enemy. This escalation portrays how power so often corrupts those who possess it because violence, and especially the pleasure derived from it, is indicative of a deteriorating internal sense of morality. 

This apparent obsession with power, the use of it to fulfill selfish desires, and the corruption that follows all cascade into a morally insightful end. The fourth and final stanza of the poem is spoken by a sort of omniscient narrator who is notably more demure than his/her predecessors. Instead of making a triumphant ode to any power they possess, this speaker forewarns the destiny of those who selfishly possess and inhumanely use power. “They all end alone,” the speaker claims referring to the stone, the paper, and the scissors; and then the final speaker turns this gravitational karma to the reader, “as you will, you will,” warning us that an obsession with procuring power will lead us to ruin. Ruin, in this case, is defined as an isolated end that will inevitably come to those whom power has corrupted.

Power in America

The amount of issues in America to which this poem could apply is innumerable. A list encompassing all problems we face in this country as a result of power would be considerably extensive. In fact, Thomas E. Patterson, a Professor of Government at Harvard University, explains how power is often the center of many political issues we face: “Given what power can do, it’s not surprising that much of what happens in politics centers on power: trying to get it, as in the case of campaigning for election to office, and trying to use it, as in the case of lobbying to influence legislation. […] Who has the power and who doesn’t? That’s one of the most important questions to ask and answer about any political system.” 

Fear in America

An inescapable side effect of power, whether political or other, is the fear of losing it. We have all heard about how absolute power corrupts absolutely, but according to Aung Aan Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it.” This is a very visible fear in America. Donald Trump arguably ran his campaign on that fear, appealing to the concerns of his supporters. A conspicuous example of this is how Trump catered to their anxiety over losing economic power to immigrants because “they steal our jobs.” But there are three current issues where this fear needs to be brought to the forefront of America's political mind, if we hope to avoid the lonely ruin forewarned at the end of this poem.

Racial Inequality

In a recent interview with the Breakfast Club, Jon Stewart and his hosts discussed racial inequality, a topic that has recently gained more attention as a result of the George Floyd protests. One of the most compelling parts of the interview was when Stewart said that “Black people have had to fight so hard for equality, while White people were building equity,” during their discussion about systemic racism in America—a truth that should give every American pause for consideration. He also pointed out how many White middle and upper-class citizens are doing what he calls “resource guarding,” which is the fear of having to give up some of that equity, or power, they have accumulated so that Black Americans can build some. It is a fear that Black equality somehow diminishes White equity, to say it more concisely. When illustrating this fear, Stewart recalled the outrage displayed by many members of the White community following Brown vs. Board of Education in the 50’s, and then again with the bussing policy of the 70’s. Describing the photos of White protestors in both cases, he stated that those are the “faces of hate and fear.” It seems that in every case where Black people got closer to obtaining an equal amount of power, whether it be in the form of equity or rights, a significant portion of the White community became inflamed with rage—rage ignited by the fear of losing their power.

Jon Stewart on The Breakfast Club

Left to right, top to bottom: Angela Yee, Charlamagne tha God, Jon Stewart, DJ Envy

Equality for LGBTQ Community

Another example of a majority group fearing losing their power to a minority group is the fight for LGBTQ equality. Though it may feel like an antiquated story, or a fight already won for the LGBTQ community, just this year did a law finally pass that protects LGBTQ from discrimination in the work place. Having to worry about being terminated because of who you are sexually attracted to is not a problem for many of us, but why would anyone want this to be the case for some of our fellow Americans? The answer, again, is fear—fear of losing our power that comes from imposing personal beliefs on those who do not share them. Many religions decry gay marriage as an “attack” on the nuclear family, which is really the fear that by giving LGBTQ people the right to be legally wedded it will somehow decrease the power of those who are already privy to such rights. The underlying theme in this case is the same: the fear that if one group gains power, the other’s must diminish. 

Face Masks and Covid-19

Another unfortunately relevant example of this fear comes from the ever-controversial face mask. As we have previously discussed here at Consider This, some people refuse to wear a mask because they fear losing the power that comes from their “individualism,” an ideal that defines America’s political culture. Again, it is the same fear: by wearing a mask, one’s power is diminished and another’s is increased. This is evident in many of the memes and graphics being posted across social media platforms right now. There is one in particular that showcases this point—a picture of a face mask under the words The New Symbol of Tyranny. Tyranny denotes that a governing group that seeks to possess all power, and if you or I comply by wearing the mask, then we are surrendering our individual power to said governing authority.

Consider This

As forewarned in Mason’s poem, power corrupts and that corruption leads to ruin; additionally, we know this to be the case not only because of the power itself, but our fear of losing it. It is interesting that Mason depicts ruin as a lonely end because in every aforementioned case, our fear over losing power is inseparable from our fear of inclusion. Whether it is including immigrants in our workforce, the Black community in equity, the LGBTQ community in familial societies, or the health and safety of our fellow human beings in our individual decision making, some Americans greatly fear losing their power. Not only could one argue that this is indicative of a deteriorated sense of morality, but it is also obvious that those who are ardently set on exclusion will inevitably meet an isolated end.

Why is it that when a group less fortunate than us gains more power, we impulsively assume that it must have been stolen from our own? “A rising tide lifts all boats” is the common phrase, but unfortunately many of us hear it as “If the rising tide lifts the boat next to us, our boat will sink.” This principal is not only untrue, but it is objectively selfish and clearly demonstrates this fear of losing power we’ve discussed. We are all human beings on the same team, and we are all ships floating on the same tide. A victory for anyone is a victory for everyone and ought to be seen as such, that is only if we aren’t impulsively thinking to ourselves, “mine is the power.”