Immigrant Voices essays

Immigrant Voices essays The Book Immigrant Voices by Thomas Dublin is focused on giving readers a close view of what things were like for immigrants between the years of 1773-1986. It contains diaries, letters, autobiographies, and interviews of actual immigrants during this time period. The book tells many facts about immigration to America and the harsh realities people faced. The first immigrant I read about was John Harrower. Harrower was from the Shetland Islands and was forced to leave in 1773 due to poverty and despair. Harrower left his wife and children in order to find work in America. Harrower signed away his freedom in order to cross the ocean. On the journey to America Harrower delt with his own sickness and watched others die. Harrower watched men that he knew, friends, who had died of illness get tossed overboard and thrown into the ocean. Harrower was a smart man, therefore, when he reached America he became a tutor. John instructed the children of the man of which he was serving. After being there for nearly four years Harrower had saved up almost enough money to bring his family over to America. John Harrower died of an unknown illness before he could bring his wife and children to their new home. Some of the letters that I spoke if were those of William and Sophie Frank Seyffard to their families. William and Sophie were Germans who came from well off families. William and Sophie were married and they were happy together. William Seyffard bought a farm where he and Sophie would live. They had children and were happy in America for the most part, until their mill burnt down and they lost practically everything they had. They owed mortgages and creditors. They moved off of their own farm and all of their children got ill with scarlet fever. The one by the name of Ernst died. Another instance of a heartbreaking story of an immigrant is that of Rosa Cassettari. She was an Italian who wa...

Operation Ten-Go in World War II

Operation Ten-Go in World War II Operation Ten-Go took place on April 7, 1945, and was part of the Pacific Theater of World War II. With Allied forces landing on Okinawa in early 1945, the Japanese Combined Fleet was pressured into mounting an operation to aid in the islands defense. The plan put forward called for sending the superbattleship Yamato on a one-way voyage to the island. Arriving, it was to beach itself and be used as a massive shore battery until destroyed. Though many Japanese naval leaders considered Operation Ten-Go to be a waste of their remaining resources, it moved forward on April 6, 1945. Quickly spotted by Allied aircraft, Yamato and its consorts were subjected to a series of heavy air attacks that resulted in the loss of the battleship and most of its supporting ships. Though kamikaze strikes on the Allied ships off Okinawa caused some losses, only twelve men were lost in the attacks on the Japanese warships. Background By early 1945, having suffered crippling defeats at the Battles of Midway, Philippine Sea, and Leyte Gulf, the Japanese Combined Fleet was reduced to a small number of operational warships. Concentrated in the home islands, these remaining vessels were too few in number to directly engage the Allies fleets. As a final precursor to the invasion of Japan, Allied troops began attacking Okinawa on April 1, 1945. A month prior, realizing that Okinawa would be the Allies next target, Emperor Hirohito convened a meeting to discuss plans for the islands defense. The Japanese Plan Having listened to the armys plans to defend Okinawa through the use of kamikaze attacks and determined fighting on the ground, the Emperor demanded to how the navy planned to aid in the effort. Feeling pressured, the Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Toyoda Soemu met with his planners and conceived Operation Ten-Go. A kamikaze-style operation, Ten-Go called for the battleship Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi, and eight destroyers to fight their way through the Allied fleet and beach themselves on Okinawa. Japanese Battleship Yamato running sea trials on October 30, 1941. US Naval History Heritage Command Once ashore, the ships were to act as shore batteries until destroyed at which point their surviving crews were to disembark and fight as infantry. As the navys air arm had effectively been destroyed, no air cover would be available to support the effort. Though many, including the Ten-Go force commander Vice Admiral Seiichi Ito, felt that the operation was a waste of scant resources, Toyoda pushed it forward and preparations began. On March 29, Ito shifted his ships from Kure to Tokuyama. Arriving, Ito continued preparations but could not bring himself to order the operation to commence. On April 5, Vice Admiral Ryunosuke Kusaka arrived in Tokuyama to convince the Combined Fleets commanders to accept Ten-Go. Upon learning the details, most sided with Ito believing that the operation was a futile waste. Kusaka persisted and told them that the operation would draw American aircraft away from the armys planned air attacks on Okinawa and that the Emperor was expecting the navy to make a maximum effort in the islands defense. Unable to resist the Emperors wishes, those in attendance reluctantly agreed to move forward with the operation. Operation Ten-Go Conflict: World War II (1939-1945)Dates: April 7, 1945Fleets Commanders:AlliesVice Admiral Marc Mitscher11 aircraft carriersJapanVice Admiral Seiichi Ito1 battleship, 1 light cruisers, 8 destroyersCasualties:Japanese: 4,137 killedAllies: 97 killed, 122 wounded The Japanese Sail Briefing his crews on the nature of the mission, Ito permitted any sailor who wished to stay behind to leave the ships (none did) and sent ashore new recruits, sick, and wounded. Through the day on April 6, intense damage-control drills were conducted and the ships fueled. Sailing at 4:00 p.m., Yamato and its consorts were spotted by the submarines USS Threadfin and USS Hackleback as they passed through the Bundo Strait. Unable to get into an attack position the submarines radioed in sighting reports. By dawn, Ito had cleared the Osumi Peninsula at the south end of Kyushu. Shadowed by American reconnaissance aircraft, Itos fleet was reduced on the morning of April 7 when the destroyer Asashimo developed engine trouble and turned back. At 10:00 a.m., Ito feinted west in an attempt to make the Americans think he was retreating. After steaming west for an hour and half, he returned to a southerly course after being spotted by two American PBY Catalinas. In effort to drive off the aircraft, Yamato opened fire with its 18-inch guns using special beehive anti-aircraft shells. U.S. Navy SB2C Helldiver dive bombers attack Yamato during Operation Ten-Go, April 7, 1945. U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command The Americans Attack Aware of Itos progress, the eleven carriers of Vice Admiral Marc Mitschers Task Force 58 began launching several waves of aircraft around 10:00 a.m. In addition, a force of six battleships and two large cruisers was sent north in case air strikes failed to stop the Japanese. Flying north from Okinawa, the first wave spotted Yamato shortly after noon. As the Japanese lacked air cover, the American fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo planes patiently set up their attacks. Commencing around 12:30 p.m., the torpedo bombers focused their attacks on Yamatos port side to increase the chances of the ship capsizing. As the first wave struck, Yahagi was hit in the engine room by a torpedo. Dead in the water, the light cruiser was struck by six more torpedoes and twelve bombs in the course of the battle before sinking at 2:05 p.m. While Yahagi was being crippled, Yamato took a torpedo and two bomb hits. Though not effecting its speed, a large fire erupted aft of the battleships superstructure. The second and third waves of aircraft launched their attacks between 1:20 PM and 2:15 p.m. Maneuvering for its life, the battleship was hit by at least eight torpedoes and as many as fifteen bombs. Japanese battleship Yamato explodes during Operation Ten-Go, April 7, 1945. U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command End of a Behemoth Losing power, Yamato began listing severely to port. Due to the destruction of the ships water damage-control station, the crew was unable to counter-flood specially designed spaces on the starboard side. At 1:33 p.m., Ito ordered the starboard boiler and engine rooms flooded in an effort to right the ship. This effort killed the several hundred crewmen working in those spaces and reduced the ships speed to ten knots. At 2:02 p.m., Ito ordered the mission canceled and the crew to abandon ship. Three minutes later, Yamato began to capsize. Around 2:20 p.m., the battleship rolled completely and began sink before being torn open by a massive explosion. Four of the Japanese destroyers were also sunk during the battle. Aftermath Operation Ten-Go cost the Japanese between 3,700–4,250 dead as well as Yamato, Yahagi, and four destroyers. American losses in the air attacks were a mere 12 killed and ten aircraft. Operation Ten-Go was the Imperial Japanese Navys last significant action of World War II and its few remaining ships would have little effect during the final weeks of the war. The operation had minimal effect on the Allied operations around Okinawa and the island was declared secure on June 21, 1945.

Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 15

Assignment - Essay Example However, they have to learn that they cannot have a perfect plan (Honig, 265). They have to keep trying in order to succeed in the life of business. The secret of effectiveness in any field lies within one’s ability to keep trying until he or she meets success. The timid cannot be a leader or a manager for the sake of argument because he or she has to call the shots, and without confidence they cannot do their jobs. The company named as Apple became the status symbol of innovation in recent years, and the secret lied in the culture of the company. The late CEO of the organization, Steve Jobs introduced the flatter organizational structure for the first in the era of tall organizations with the setup of command and control. The featured corporate leader always believed in the power of innovation, and he struggled thoroughly in order to construct the organization that valued innovative thinking. The company innovated at a product level by introducing newness at an organizational one first. The company brought second order change, and the first order followed the regime on its own. The innovation at an organizational level gave the employees freedom to think creatively and the managers at the company stayed available for their employees so that they can share their thoughts in a free environment (Young and Simon, 168). The company stated openly that it considers its human resources as the most vit al assets of all. The company focused on development of an urge to become better in the employees, and it paid off the Apple in the long run, but the chain of innovation broke recently because the leadership changed, and they tried to undo the development of Jobs that they do not understand and comprehend. The new leadership changed the organization, and destroyed it beyond recognition, and as a result, the turnover rates grew in all

Change over time Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Change over time - Research Paper Example Moreover, the bus transportation has an official site, http://www.metrobus.df.gob.mx/ that offers tourist site for the City. Price are affordable and can be accessed online via http://www.metrobus.df.gob.mx/tarifa_pago.html. The transportation for Rooms and Accommodation can be done in the airport even before landing to Mexico City. Moreover, there are Green Taxis, Plane and Yellow Taxis that offer lucrative experience within the City. The buses and trains also offer best transportation experience around the City. There is also bus service from Airport to downtown, bike rental in city and On Foot. The Aztec population consisted of well-treated slaves, nobles and the commons. The most updated population estimate of the City of Mexico is about 8,864,000. Mexico City is the Capital of Mexico and rated the largest in Mexico. Mexico City has the highest number of the Spanish-speaking population entire world. The population density of the City is about 15,000 people per square mile. 19 percent of the population is considered indigenous communities in search of better economic situations. Also, many migrants found expatriates and immigrants dwell in the City. The primary language in Mexico is Spanish but due to the presence of indigenous communities in the city, Nahuatl, Mazahua, Zapoteco, Otomi and Mixteco languages are additionally spoken. The people that never migrated in or out the City of Mexico have about 70 percent of that population being under 15 years old. The remaining 30 percent is under the age of 15 years. Interestingly, only about 17 percent of the population over the age of 15 years has received higher education. About 41 percent of the non-migrant population is marked economically active, that is to say, a person was looking for a job or has one already. Further, about 25 percent of the emigrants is under the age of

Budgetary control Essay Example for Free

Budgetary control Essay Nowadays management’s philosophy revolves around the idea of planning. According to McKinsey (1922), chief executives have come to the realization that today’s task can only be properly fulfilled thanks to the meticulous planning of yesterday. The budgetary control framework has been openly accepted and widespread as a tool for management and overall organisation control. Nonetheless, recent evolutions in the managerial sciences have come to jeopardise the reliability of budgeting as an effective method for the control of performance and organisation. The concern of whether budgeting is in fact an apt tool has created mixed views and debate amongst scholars. This essay will aim to evaluate whether budgetary control is concerned primarily with the control of performance, or if it has of late taken on greater importance especially as a more integrative control mechanism for the organisation. In order to do so it will firstly define the meaning of two fundamental concepts such as budget and budgetary control. Secondly it will evaluate the use of budgetary control as a tool for today’s organization. Thirdly it will follow debates and criticisms on its the effectiveness and use and Lastly it will conclude by assessing to what extent budgetary control has become a more integrative control mechanism for organisations. The work of key specialists in management such as Bhimani, Otley, Van der Stede and McWatters, will be drawn on in order to cover the key issues of the discussion. Before commencing on a discussion of budgetary control, it is immanent to clarify and define the two key terms that will be used in this essay: ‘budget’ and ‘budgetary control’. On the one hand, as defined by Bhimani et al. (2008) â€Å"a budget is a quantitative expression of a proposed plan of action by management for future time period and it is an aid to coordination and implementation of the plan†. On the same line McWatters et al. (2008) highlights the importance of budgets as a planning control system for a company, which ‘translate’ organisational objectives into financial terms. Drury (2009) exemplifies the many different purposes that budgets serve, such as: coordinating activities, conveying various arrangements to different responsibility centres, arranging and controlling operations, motivating employees to attain organisational objectives and assessing the execution of managers. According to Johnson (1996), it was in the 1960s that associations started to highly regard the utilization of budgets as tools for performance measurement and the control of managerial objectives. On the other hand, budgetary control is described by Periasamy (2010) as â€Å"a system of controlling costs which includes the preparation of budgets, coordinating the department and establishing responsibilities, comparing actual performance with the budgeted and acting upon results to achieve maximum profitability†. A similar, yet more formal, definition of budgetary control is given by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants of England and Wales (CIMA): â€Å"the establishment of budgets relating to the responsibilities of executives to the requirement of a policy and the continuous comparison of actual with the budgeted results, either to secure by individual actions the objectives of policy or to provide a basis for its revision†. There are two main purposes of budgets which scholars have identified: planning and controlling. The first purpose, which McWatters et al. (2008) discusses, is that budgets have a fundamental role in undertaking planning decisions. In fact, the integration of budgets into a strategic planning of long term and short-term objectives is crucial to the harmony of the project itself. This claim can be explained by Bhimani et al. (2008) who proposes that, budgets provide a more realistic view on the possible outcomes of investments, which consequently leads managers to adjust their strategic goals accordingly. To put it another way, when a company wants to match its potentials suitably with the prospects of the marketplace, it undertakes a strategic analysis to then set several long-run and short-run goals. On this basis a budget is formulated. However, as stated before, once the budget that has been formulated projects a more realistic view on the strategic objectives, these strategic objectives are then readjusted once again. The second purpose that Emmanuel et al. (1990) discusses is to do with budgets as a form of control and a tool for monitoring a company’s performance. McWatters et al. (2008) describe this function by outlining the idea that budgets are frequently used to assign responsibilities by allocating resources to different managers. A budget may be given with more or less flexibility, for example by assigning a large sum of money for ‘advertising’ to be used at the managers discretion, or by highlighting the different ways that this money should be used. The optional flexibility of budgets allows for a company to give the adequate level of responsibility to its employees and thus the organisation is able to maintain a level of control. McWatters et al. (2008) further elaborates on the function of budgeting for control by suggesting that â€Å"the numbers in a budget are also used as goals to motivate organisational members†. This motivational aspect of budgeting can be explained by Bhimani et al (2008) who states that â€Å"the manner in which a budget is administered can adversely impact on the managers’ behaviour†. A manager must believe that the budget is achievable in order to actively attempt to pursue it, Bhimani et al (2008) adds that through the constraints and goals set by budgeting targets, managers are often motivated to â€Å"effect changes in a forceful way†. The way that a budget is formulated, and the demands and pressures that it targets are key in encouraging the right degree of motivation, â€Å"an enterprise can set a difficult to attain budget in an attempt to motivate good performance. This is because, in practice, budgets that are set up to a certain degree of tightness often become stronger motivators† (Bhimani et al. , 2008). A final point to consider with the role of budgetary control is the function that it plays in enhancing communication within a company. Internal coordination between the steps of production , as well as communication among departments are key aspects for a company’s performance. Dury (2009) states that â€Å"the budget serves as a vehicle through which the actions of the different parts of an organisation can be brought together and reconciled into one common plan†. Hence, hierarchical and inter-departmental communication within the organisation is extremely facilitated thanks to the use of budgets. For instance, considering a multinational corporation that, due to its size, has difficulties in communicating between the production department and the sales department, budgets could in this circumstance be the most operational manner of communicating, as they set common goals between different departments. As it is clear form the paragraphs above, the controlling side of budgets play a stronger role than the planning aspect. An example that instead criticise this view can be found in the strategic planning of investments. Maximising performance of a company can be synonymous for maximising the shareholders value. Akintoye (2008) argues that equality in investment decisions are fairly dependent on the solidity of the budgetary control system, which in turn is key to maximise the company’s shareholders value. Therefore, it is arguable that a weak budgetary control system may be the cause of unprofitable investments and consequently may trigger the loss of shareholders value (Akintoye, 2008). There are many examples that reflect this issue, such as one reported by the European Journal of Economics Finance and Administrative Science where the Coca-Cola Company, with the purpose of differentiating production, failed miserably in their investment on food and wine in that the investment rate of return resulted to be beneath their cost of capital. The tremendous loss of money caused by this investment and other failures of this type grab the attention of scholars, raising questions on the salience of the budgetary control system, as well as whether budgets are mainly used to control or plan organisations. Other criticisms towards budgetary control as a main form of performance control, argue instead that the use of budgetary control in performance management has of late taken on greater importance especially as a more integrative control mechanism for the organisation. This stands on the basis of different points of view of the role that motivation and communication play within a company. Bhimani et al. (2008) argues that current speculation concerning budgetary control systems prescribes two inverse perspectives. From one perspective, there is the view that upholds incremental change to budgetary process in terms of interfacing such forms more closely to operational prerequisites, arranging frameworks, expanding the recurrence of plan amendment and the arrangement of rolling budgets. A second perspective supports the abandoning of the budgetary control system as a method of organisational control, and supplanting it with elective systems to empower firms on their adaptability and adjustability. The second perspective arose because of the consequences caused by the conflictual role of budgets between planning and controlling. To summarize; in planning and settling choices, budgets convey specialised information between different departments and hierarchy of the organisation, whereas for control, budgets serve as benchmarks for performance measurement (Otley, 1978). According to McWatters et al. (2008) if too many boundaries are placed into performance targets, then specialised executives will settle down and stop disclosing accurate predictions of prospected occurrences, and instead rely more on budgeted figures, which ease the achievement of the targets. A clear example of this conflict is given by the marketing sector. Salespeople according to McWatters et al. (2008) are usually very specialised and can very well forecast future sales. Their predictions are very important to settle the amount of goods to be produced. Inasmuch budgetary control of sales takes place at the end of the year, and it is used as a tool to evaluate performance. Salespeople are reasonably incentivised to under-forecast future sales in order to assure a positive evaluation of their performance. Nevertheless this behaviour induces the company to have higher production costs, creating counterproductive results. However, this behavioural theory is contrasted by Van der Stede (2000) in his study on the relationship between two consequences of budgetary control: slack creation and managerial short-term orientation. In his experiment he attempts to find the relationship between rigid budgetary control and slack creation, where he defines slack as the action by business unit managers that leads them to â€Å"†¦ exploit their position of superior knowledge about business possibilities vis-a-vis corporate management to get performance targets that are deliberately lower than their best guess forecast about the future† (lukka, 1988). Van der Stede’s (2008) statistical correlation showed in fact that rigid budget control reduced slack. To strengthen his view, Bhimani et al. (2008) states that â€Å"budgeted performance measures can overcome two keys limitations of using past performance as basis for judging actual result†, meaning that, not only budgetary control is a good â€Å"judge† of performance, but it also develops better aspects in comparison to other evaluation techniques. In conclusion, this essay has highlighted the role of budgetary control and it’s functions in terms of planning the organisational control of a company, as well as its role in performance management. Motivation and communication are both key aspects in the management of performance, and both of these functions are met through the system of budgetary control, either by setting achievable incentives, or by providing the necessary requirements to improve communications within a company. Having underlined the role of budgetary control as an enhancer of performance management, it is clear to see how it has become a key mechanism for the integrative control of an organisation. Nonetheless, this essay has outlined some of the key disputes of the reliability and effectiveness of budgetary control as an adequate method of performance management. An example of this is highlighted by the fact that when managers are given strict budgeting figures, they sometimes deem the goals to be too easily achieved, and hence give a lesser input of motivation. Despite the many critics of budgetary control as a tool for the organisation of a company, scholars such as Van der Stede (2000) and Bhimani et al. (2008) have confidently stated that when a budget is set correctly, it can significantly improve an organisations performance, including the integrative function within a company; and is in fact a more effective tool than other existing methods of control.

Industrial Revolution Essay -- essays research papers

2. INTRODUCTION During the second half of the 17th century, there were a drastic breakthrough in mainly Great Britain’s, but gradually the rest of the worlds development, that would lead to radical changes in peoples lives, working relations and environment. Industrial revolution was so fundamental that it’s often compared with the transition from farming to stock raising, which began several thousand years before the birth of Christ. Considering the uses of natural resources, can human history be dived up into three pieces of varying length; hundreds of thousands years before â€Å"the agricultural revolution†, thousands of years between this and the Industrial revolution and the two hundreds years after the beginning of Industrial revolution. Before Industrial revolution, man did the most work in society. During 17th century people started to invent machines. Accompanied by changes in agriculture, science and the treatment of people, the Industrial revolution shaped a new kind of life. 2.1 Limitations I, sometimes have difficulties to draw limits. When it comes to such big and wide subject as the Industrial revolution, it is of course very difficult to write and understand it all. It is also difficult to decide what is important enough to bring in the essay and what you should omit. Therefor I decided to write a rather comprehensive job. I haven’t focused on any particular part, but written what, when, how and why the Industrial revolution is /occurred. 2.2 Aims I want this essay to contain as much information as possible of the Industrial revolution or â€Å"Second wave† as it is also called, on the few pages that I will write. 3. REVIEW OF SOURCES I have only written this essay based on written material. I have used a lot of information from the Internet, but also from a very good book called â€Å"The Industrial Revolution in World History† written by a professor called Peter N. Stearns. If I decided to write a part from one book, or from an Internet site, I always compared it with another source, to see the differences and similarities. Dictionaries are often very sweeping in the subject, and there are both good and bad sides about that. I have decided also to write the centuries in Swedish form. So 17th century is in our time scale â€Å"sjuttonhundratalet†. 4. RESULTS 4.1 The beginning A Revolution doesn’t mean only changes and development. It means rapid change... ...ution. The problem of how to move the increasing quantities of factory produced goods to distant places was solved by improvements in transportantions. In contrary to many other countries were the state produces the most communications, England’s railroads, roads, and canals, were often financed by private persons or companies. Also Englands biggest need for better transportations was’t because of military needs, but for commersial needs. 1820-1830 was the years of the most successful railroads. The canals that were built, were pariculary in north England. Farm owners and industry owners made canals from waterdrains. The canals gave excellent transport possibilities, and could often halften the costs 4.5 Industrial revolution in the world The Industrial revolution rapidly affected the whole world Because the Indusrtal revolution first appeared in west , it most often also connected to there. It also both connected and divided different continents and parts of the world. The Industrial revolution formed one of the most central of human history. It brought wirh it bobth advantaged and disadvantages. It’s started and constatly continuing. We still adjust ourselves to it’s effects.

“Visiting Hour” by Norman Maccaig

Rewrite – â€Å"Visiting Hour† The poem â€Å"Visiting Hour† was written by the Scottish poet Norman MacCaig. In the poem, MacCaig shows the central idea is loss and death. This central idea is achieved through the use of various techniques such as imagery, structure and narrative stance. The poem is about a visit MacCain makes to a dying relative in a hospital. Throughout the poem, MacCaig gives his thoughts and feeling to how he fails to cope with the situation. The poet also uses enjambment, metaphor and imagery at the beginning of the poem when MacCaig hints at the central idea. Vanishes heavenward†, with the use of enjambment the poet introduces the idea of death. The quotation emphases the theme of death and how MacCaig may not be able to speak to his loved one again. With the use of a metaphor and imagery, as the lift physically rises up, the mood of depression associates the journey to heaven. The â€Å"corpse† represents death. The person he is visiting could easily be a corpse. The poet is occupied of images of death and sees the patient in a negative way. Though not mentioning the word death, his mind automatically makes this assumption.At this point the reader just assumes the central idea is death. Repetition is used as the poet emphasises the central concern of his loved one but also of his admiration of the nurses. â€Å"So many deaths†¦. so many farewells† emphasises how â€Å"miraculous† the nurses seem to him and they are not overwhelmed by the emotion of grief unlike him. MacCaig uses structure as he first mentions the patient, â€Å"Ward 7. She lies†. The four word line immediately links the woman with the hospital. The non-sentence â€Å"Ward 7†³ draws attention to the reality of the situation the poet is in. In a white cave of forgetfulness†, though suggesting a white curtain around the bed, it creates the impression of emptiness. The vivid colours of â€Å"green and yellow† are not present. This suggests the patient's life slipping away and a fear from MacCaig that they will not remember him. A Metaphor is used once again as the poet recognises that while he can physically touch the patient, she is dying and he is alive. â€Å"And between her and me distance shrinks till there is none left but the distance of pain that neither she nor I can cross†, he has entered the hospital, found her ward and reached her bedside but cannot â€Å"touch† her.The central idea is made clear to the reader in the last stanza where the poet writes, â€Å"books the will not be read†. MacCaig notices the uselessness of the gifts brought for the patient. The patient's inability to eat the fruit or read the books reveals their lack of life. In conclusion, the poet achieves the central idea of death and loss by the use of metaphor, imagery, enjambment and structure. By using all of those techniques made the central idea is clear.