The history of the Welsh people, from the year six hundred to the present, can be traced through poetry - there has not been one generation in that time in which poets haven't kept a record. In this series of Essays, poet and musician Twm Morys brings his personal perspective to five stories looking at aspects of the history of Wales over several centuries, following the fortunes of Welsh figures both eminent and ordinary.

In the second essay Twm explores a tradition that was preserved for more than a thousand years in Wales - that of farmhands singing songs to their oxen

Producer: Megan Jones for BBC Wales