We hold no awe for the new unknown Who tasted each ancient plan; We fear no fuse in the atom's jaw, No ray in the palm of man.
For the dew still dazzles the garden old, The grasses their goblets fill, And the dawn we thought in the doctor's care Comes in by the window-sill.
The speakers here sound almost cheerful in their defiance. "We hold no awe" and "We fear no fuse in the atom's jaw" are the words of people who refuse to be frightened by modern science and its power, whether that means the atom or some mysterious "ray in the palm of man." The title, "The Braggarts," makes us wonder how much of this confidence is real and how much is a show of nerve.
The second stanza shifts from big, abstract threats to something small and physical: dew in the garden, grass holding water like little cups. Here the confidence feels better earned. Even the dawn, which they had imagined being managed by the doctor, simply "comes in by the window-sill," unbothered by any of it. The mood is bold and a little playful, with a quiet suggestion that nature's ordinary renewals still outlast human inventions.