'Though I sang in my chains like the sea.'

This may be one of Dylan Thomas's most famous lines, but how many know that it is an example of cynghanedd, one of the world's oldest verse forms? And that that verse form is a uniquely Welsh one?

The word cynghanedd means 'harmony', and it is the music of Welsh poetry throughout the ages that Mererid Hopwood celebrates in this accessible handbook. In it she explores the intricacy and beauty of the art, inviting the reader (or rather, listener) to marvel at its clarity and complexity. Her explanation of the rules and conventions, followed by simple exercises, will also allow beginners to try their hand at this ancient yet thoroughly contemporary craft.

What is more, the book places the phenomenon of cynghanedd in its social and historical context, reminding us that it has been, and continues to be, inextricable from the Welsh language itself.

Singing in Chains is accompanied by a CD, on which the author reads a selection of the examples, exercises, lines and poems included in the book, so that the music of cynghanedd can truly be 'heard'..

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