"He Never Expected Much" has a subtitle, which also serves as an introductory note:
[or]
A Consideration
[A reflection] On My Eighty-Sixth Birthday
The speaker of the poem, then, seems to be Thomas Hardy himself, taking his 86th birthday as an occasion to reflect on life.
Lines 1-4 kick off the poem itself with an apostrophe. Addressing the "World" in general, the speaker acknowledges that it has "kept faith with [him]," or kept its promises to him. He adds that "Upon the whole" (that is, by and large), the world has turned out to be "Much as [it] said [it was]." It's as if he's going out of his way to stress that he's not bitter or disappointed.
At the same time, there's something humorously colloquial and a little world-weary about that "Well." Its tone might be read as dryly ironic, as in a phrase like, "Well, what can I say." The word "faith" definitely turns out to be loaded with irony: the speaker goes on to clarify that the "World" has lived up to its promises only because it promised so little. Meanwhile, he "Never Expected Much," even as a child. In other words, he doesn't feel anything like traditional faith; he doesn't believe that any kind of god or deity has rewarded (or punished) him.
The poem is highly musical from these first lines onward. The epizeuxis of "Kept faith with me, / Kept faith with me" sounds downright sing-song, and the first two lines of each subsequent stanza contain similar repetition. Strong alliteration ("Well, World"/"with"/"with") and assonance ("Well"/"kept"/"Kept"; "you"/"proved to") add musicality as well, both here and throughout the poem.