Sowing and Reaping
The poem's opening line asserts that while many sow, those who reap what is sown represent a substantially smaller segment of society. The literal reference here is to planting seeds and raising crops, of course, but sowing and reaping in this case is a metaphor for all labor and the product such labor produces. Aside from the metaphorical imagery, this opening line is specifically intended to symbolize economic inequality in which very few enjoy the privilege of enjoying the benefits of what others labor to produce without having to work at all to enjoy that privilege.
Day/Night
The second line of the opening stanza includes a capitalized “Day” while the final line of that same stanza consists of a capitalized “Night.” The imagery connecting the two provides the context which justifies this ungrammatical choice. For those not born to privilege who must labor all their lives, the hope is that life does not linger on too long before the night without following dawn arrives. The symbolism of the capitalized Day and Night to life and death respectively.
The Father
It is not until the third stanza that it starts to become clear that the father referenced in the title does not apply literally to a parent. Full identification of the father will not come until the fourth stanza when it becomes apparent that the parental figure is symbolic in the form of God, the heavenly Father of all mankind.
Fairy Gifts
The clarity that the father in the title is God is made manifest with the opening recognition that free will originates from the mind of a supreme being. The speaker declares that free will allows a person to move beyond the heritage into which one is born. But moving upward to a better state is only achieved through hardship and hard work. It is not the kind of gift received as the granting of a wish from the fairy. The symbolic comparison suggests that the endowment of free will to man is the act of a deity that respects His creations instead of magicians simply conjuring tricks to prove his power.
Sand and Rock
The final stanza opens with the recognition that even among the most hopeless individuals, the opportunity has been granted to realize improvement upon the conditions in which they were born. The keystone of labor is once again reiterated as essential to this process. To discover a dream requires a serious of purpose and effort. The imagery of building access to dream out of sand references back to the fairy gifts that only those with weak will depend upon. In order to change one’s conditions, one must build the pathway on a solid rock foundation capable of withstanding all the elements capable of destroying the dream. Sand and rock are thus oppositional symbols of failure and success.
