The poem sets two worlds side by side. In the first stanza, the speaker looks at poorer parts of the world, where the land itself seems desperate: fields "go hungry" or somehow "rise to eat a peak," a strange, almost violent image of the earth devouring itself. Then the poem turns to home. The speaker and his wife have "excellent table-talk," a quiet pleasure that comes from having enough to eat and time to talk over it.
The last image is small and domestic: the wife's old morning gown, nearly worn out. The simile "like balance to the sober" is odd and open, but it seems to suggest that this shabby comfort steadies a person, a kind of ordinary ballast.
The mood is calm and contented, but with an undertone of awareness. The title's "sufficiency" suggests gratitude without showiness, though the contrast with hunger may leave a touch of unease about being so fortunate.