Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the leading figures in the thought and literature of our civilization. He was an essayist, critic poet, orator and popular philosopher. As a writer, he was always concerned about his audience and his peers. Emerson’s essays are a series of loosely related impressions, maxims, proverbs and parables.Emerson’s other literary works include Nature(1836), Representative Men(1850), English Traits(1856), Poems(1846) and May-Day (1867).