The poem begins with a very ordinary scene: a woman with fish on the table, a small yard, not much time. The repeated word "little" makes her world feel narrow, and the phrase "little time to little purpose" suggests days that slip by without adding up to anything. She barely notices the yard, as if routine has dulled her attention.
Then the poem widens. Night, "like any money," will "call things into question." The comparison hints that both darkness and cash force us to take stock, to ask what we have and what it's worth. The last lines turn outward to "the people / being forced to sell their ills," a strange, painful image of people having to trade even their suffering to get by.
The speaker doesn't state a feeling outright, but the tone is quiet, watchful and uneasy. The mood moves from tired domestic routine to a broader sense of pressure and unfairness, with the housekeeper's small life sitting inside a much larger economic worry.