Contrasted with the optimism of this aspiring idealism is Byron’s gloom over the deeds of the Congress of Verona. The measures advocated by this gathering, as we have seen, were reactionary and autocratic; and Byron’s description of it, tinged with liberal sentiment, is vigorously satirical. In the conference headed by Metternich, “Power’s foremost parasite,” he can see nothing but a body of tyrants,
“With ponderous malice swaying to and fro,
And crushing nations with a stupid blow.”
Many of the allusions in Byron’s sketches of the members recall the language used by Moore in his Fables for the Holy Alliance. Moore’s views of the situation in Europe agreed substantially with those of Byron. Byron’s reference to the “coxcomb czar,”
“The autocrat of waltzes and of war,”
recalls Moore’s mention of that sovereign in Fable I:
“So, on he capered, fearless quite,
Thinking himself extremely clever,
And waltzed away with all his might,
As if the Frost would last forever.”