While at Pforta, Nietzsche had a penchant for pursuing subjects that were considered unfit. He became acquainted with the work of the then almost unknown poet Friedrich Hölderlin, calling him "my favorite poet" and composing an essay in which he said that the mad poet raised consciousness to "the most sublime ideality." The teacher who corrected the essay gave it a good mark but commented that Nietzsche should concern himself in the future with healthier, more lucid and more German writers. Additionally, he became acquainted with Ernst Ortlepp, an eccentric, blasphemous and often drunk poet who was found dead in a ditch weeks after meeting the young Nietzsche, but who may have introduced Nietzsche to the music and writing of Richard Wagner. Perhaps under Ortlepp's influence, he and a student named Richter returned to school drunk and encountered a teacher, resulting in Nietzsche's demotion from first in his class and the end of his status as a prefect.
