Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/On Seeing a Fly Burned in a Lamp

On Seeing a Fly Burned in a Lamp.

See how around the glowing flame
The giddy insect flies,
Till, fluttering on with fatal aim,
It drops, at last it dies.

Just so, in pleasure's sultry maze,
The victim courts his doom;
Awhile he wantons in the blaze,
Then sinks into the tomb.