Seamus Heaney, 'Study Ireland: Poetry: Growing Up', 1999

What sets poetry apart from other kinds of writing is the fact that it's got a rhythmic unity. It marks itself off from all other language. It draws a little line around itself with its meter and rhyme or with its form. That's one way of answering it.

Another way of answering it is to try to define poetry which nobody has managed to do. One of my favorite definitions is from Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid. And MacDiarmid said, 'Poetry is human existence come to life'. 

Now that's a very large thing, but actually when somebody writes a poem when you finish a poem that you think is right you are brought to life in a special way for that moment. I think the idea of being brought to life by language or within language over and over again, in the same kind of way the tune coming alive in you, you coming alive in the tune. 

You, of course, want to tell a story, but you think, 'What's going to rhyme with that?' and you make out a little list, maybe in the margin. If you say 'sun', you say 'bun ... done ... fun, run'. You go through the alphabet and that quite often suggest a new line of thought to you. So, the rhyme is important for generating the energy to proceed. And it can be a pleasure in itself.

(BBC)

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