Southey paid his respects to The Pig and a Dancing Bear:
Alas, poor Bruin! How he foots the pole,
And waddles round it with unwieldy steps
Swaying from side to side. The dancing master
Hath had as profitless a pupil in him
As when he tortured my poor toes
To minuet grace, and made them move like clock-work
In musical obedience.
After sympathizing with his “piteous plight” he draws a moral for the advocates of the slave trade.
He also addressed poems to The Bee and A Spider; the latter must be given entire, it is so strong and original in its comparisons: