As a young student, August Wilhelm, already distinguished by his impressionableness as a stylist and opinionativeness as an author, ardently desired to make the acquaintance of Bürger, who was leading a lonely and unhappy life as professor at the University of Göttingen. Bürger's fame as a poet procured him no consideration in a place where learning alone was valued; his social position had, moreover, been injured by the discovery of his relations with his wife's sister. With the feelings of an exile, he warmly welcomed the distinguished and talented young disciple, whose taste was more correct and whose stores of knowledge were better ordered than his own. At this time Bürger was still considered to be Germany's best lyric poet and most accomplished versifier. Schlegel placed himself under his tuition, and learned all his linguistic and metrical devices, all the methods of producing artistic effects by careful choice and arrangement of words and use of rhythm and metres. With his natural gift of imitation, he appropriated as many of Bürger's characteristics as were at all compatible with his entirely different temperament. His poem _Ariadne_ might have been written by Bürger. Bürger had been particularly successful in the sonnet, a form of poetry which had lately come into vogue in Germany. So closely did the pupil follow in the footsteps of his master, that when, many years later, a complete edition of Schlegel's works was published, two of Bürger's sonnets were accidentally included among them. The master did homage to his remarkably promising pupil in a fine sonnet, beginning:-- "Junger Aar, dein königlicher Flug Wird den Druck der Wolken überwinden, Wird die Bahn zum Sonnentempel finden, Oder Phöbus' Wort in mir ist Lug,"[2] and ending with the charmingly modest lines:-- "Dich zum Dienst des Sonnengotts zu krönen Hielt ich nicht den eignen Kranz zu wert, Doch--dir ist ein besserer beschert."[3]