How Ambush’s structure mars Exam Focus: Literature-in-English

Book: Exam Focus: Literature-in-English

Authors: JOJ Nwanchukwu, Tunde Omobowale et al (2014)

Publisher: University Press PLC

Reviewer: Adjekpagbon Blessed Mudiaga

Having taught Literature-in-English over a decade at various levels, from secondary to post-secondary academies, I noticed that many students and teachers find it confusing when some poetry lines are not properly arranged to distinguish them as either a poem that has stanzas or not, according to how it was originally written.

Once the lines of a poem originally written in stanzas are jammed together by teachers or publishers, it automatically loose its form in terms of structure. This has been a common occurrence in some revision or analytical books that tend to give students detail analysis of the recommended poems for the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) exams.

The poem in question as arranged at page 244 of the book

Such confusion happened in a class on March 20, 2017, when this reviewer asked his students the number of stanzas in a poem titled “Ambush.” Though the poem is marked by numbers, there is no divisional break in terms of space between each stanza, as presented in Exam Focus: Literature-in-English, which makes the poem appear as one block of thought, compared to other revision textbooks where each stanza are separated to clearly distinguish them. Some students who have Exam Focus said Ambush has no stanzas while others who use other revision books that analyzes the same poem said it has four stanzas as each division is clearly noticed in the structure of the poem by the gaps that separates them.

Though Exam Focus: Literature-in-English, is one of the commendable books any sound teacher of Literature-in-English could recommend for his students due to the painstaking efforts put into its compilation by four experienced writers, teachers, educators and examiners in the persons of JOJ Nwachukwu-Agbada, a professor of English Literature at Abia State University; Tunde Omobowale, a professor in the English Department, University of Ibadan; Sunday Enessi Ododo, a professor in the Department of Creative Arts, University of Maiduguri; and Kazeem Adebiyi, of the Department of English, University of Ibadan, the structure of “Ambush,” at page 244 of the book is confusing to students in terms of structural arrangement of lines in line with the principle of distinguishing stanza from stanza by space. It makes one wonder whether it is the publisher’s fault or the analysts (authors) who presented the entire poem as a block of thought instead of  being clearly arranged as four structured stanzas.

Despite the “structural noise,” in “Ambush,” as  presented in Exam Focus: Literature-in-English, the analysts effort in producing the book to enlighten students preparing for the West African School Certificate and National Examination Council senior school certificate examinations is commendable. However, the observed defect should be corrected before reprint of more copies, to avoid continuous confusion among students and teachers using it as a reference material that contains all the abridged versions and explanation of the recommended texts for prose, drama and poetry in its original structure for the aforementioned exams.

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