Phin's poem paints a quiet, cozy scene: a girl sits by a window with a cup of mint tea and a book while rain pours down on the roof. The short, fragmented lines feel like small snapshots, each one adding a sound, a smell, or a sensation, from the minty steam to the rain running down the glass.
The heart of the poem is escape. When "problems and worries arose," reading becomes her refuge, and she doesn't want to return to "a world called reality." She half-wonders whether her favorite characters might be real ("Of course not. / Probably."), which gives the poem a playful, wistful touch. She envies how their troubles end in neat resolutions, unlike real life.
The mood is calm, warm, and contented. By the end, with the tea still warm and the rain still tapping, the final word, "insouciance," sums up her feeling of being carefree and completely at ease.