I shall have to tell him soon about losing all that money at baccarat, and, when I do, he will go up like a rocket."
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse

E'en now, this instant, great Ulysses, laid At rest, or wandering in his country's shade, Their guilty deeds, in hearing, and in view, Secret revolves; and plans the vengeance due.
— from The Odyssey by Homer

This poor wretch had been long raving for water and air; I told him I was determined to give up life, and recommended his gaining my station.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain

miss, miss one's aim, miss the mark, miss one's footing, miss stays; slip, trip, stumble; make a slip &c., n. blunder &c. 495, make a mess of, make a botch of; bitch it|, miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, come down in flames, get shot down, reckon without one's host; get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear &c. (blunder, mismanage) 699.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget

Of course, there were carping critics, one of whom is reported to have said the author would “go up like a rocket and come down like a stick.”
— from John Leech, His Life and Work. Vol. 1 [of 2] by William Powell Frith

I can feel it gwine up like a rushin', mighty wind.
— from The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 17, March, 1859 A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics by Various

"Cheerful that, for a fellow's little pile to go up like a rocket, and he not even to get the stick.
— from Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death by T. C. (Thomas Cooper) De Leon

" "If it ever passes the two hundred," solemnly quoth the colonel in answer, "egad, sir! 'twill go up like a rocket!
— from Four Years in Rebel Capitals An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death by T. C. (Thomas Cooper) De Leon

It’s going up like a rocket, now.”
— from Living Too Fast; Or, The Confessions of a Bank Officer by Oliver Optic

I believe you will stand the test, but I have seen too many brilliant and aspiring young politicians go up like a rocket and come down a burnt stick, to be very sure of any man in the same circumstances."
— from For Woman's Love by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

We have been beguiled by men who we thought were to give us life, and really took life from us.
— from The Gospel of St. John: A Series of Discourses. New Edition by Frederick Denison Maurice

With "Pot-Bouille" there had at least been a moment when a very large sale had seemed probable, but the demand for "Au Bonheur des Dames" was distinctly moderate, and the wiseacres of the bookselling world opined that Zola, after going up like a rocket, might presently come down like a stick.
— from Émile Zola, Novelist and Reformer: An Account of His Life & Work by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

Then, if it dates away back, the price goes up like a rocket.”
— from His Unknown Wife by Louis Tracy