 Longfellow 's early collections , Voices of the Night and Ballads and Other Poems , made him instantly popular . The New @-@ Yorker called him " one of the very few in our time who has successfully aimed in putting poetry to its best and sweetest uses " . The Southern Literary Messenger immediately put Longfellow " among the first of our American poets " . Poet John Greenleaf Whittier said that Longfellow 's poetry illustrated " the careful moulding by which art attains the graceful ease and chaste simplicity of nature " . Longfellow 's friend Oliver Wendell Holmes , Sr. wrote of him as " our chief singer " and one who " wins and warms ... <unk> , softens , cheers [ and ] calms the wildest woe and stays the bitterest tears ! " 
