The former Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, Seamus Heaney has praised Eminem for his "verbal energy" adding that he has "sent a voltage around a generation".
The quote comes as a response to a journalist who asked Heaney if there was a figure in popular culture who aroused interest in poetry and lyrics in the way that Bob Dylan and John Lennon had done in the 60s and 70s.
Heaney said: "There is this guy Eminem. He has created a sense of what is possible. He has done this not just through his subversive attitude but also his verbal energy."