The speaker walks through an ordinary evening that seems to glow with goodness. The sunshine feels warmer, the streets are full of decent people, every woman looks beautiful, and even the traffic signals seem to turn green on cue. A fishmonger throws in a couple of extra fish, and the coffee tastes especially good.
The poem hints at why. At the corner shop, the speaker reads an English letter aloud to a worker who cannot read it, and tells him his daughter is coming home for Christmas. The man listens with joy. That small act of generosity seems to change how the speaker sees everything around him. In the last lines, he catches his reflection in a shop window and sees a happy, smiling man. The mood is light, warm and quietly sweet. The poem suggests that happiness often comes from giving something to someone else, and that a kind heart makes the world look kinder.