Explore "A Warning" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
There was a flame, oh! such a tiny flame- / One fleeting hour had spanned its birth and death, / But for a silly child with playful breath / Who fanned it into fury. It became / A mighty conflagration. Ah, the cost! / House, home, and thoughtless child alike were lost.
Lady beware. Fan not the harmless glow / Of admiration into ardent love, / Lean not with red curled smiling lips above / The flickering spark of sinless flame, and blow, / Lest in the sudden waking of desire / Thou, like the child, shalt perish in the fire.