Not to understand a treasure’s worth till time has stole away the slighted good, is cause of half the poverty we feel, and makes the world the wilderness it is.

Cowper laments a common moral blindness: people often fail to recognize the value of what they possess—love, health, peace, friendship, ordinary comforts—until it is gone. Time, figured as a thief, “steals away” neglected goods, and only then does their true worth become clear. The resulting “poverty” is not merely economic but emotional and spiritual: regret, loneliness, and a sense of deprivation created by misvaluation. By saying this accounts for “half the poverty we feel,” the line suggests that much human misery is self-inflicted through inattentiveness and ingratitude. The final image—“the world the wilderness it is”—implies that widespread neglect of everyday blessings turns life into a barren landscape of loss.