Irish Nobel laureate poet Seamus Heaney has praised the lyrical talents of controversial American rapper Eminem by saying he has a "verbal energy".
Eminem, who has been condemned by gays for homophobic lyrics and labelled a misogynist by women's groups, "sent a voltage round a generation", Heaney said during an interview in Britain.
The former Professor of Poetry at Oxford University was speaking in Norwich when asked by journalists whether there was a figure of popular culture who aroused interest in poetry and lyrics such as the musicians Bob Dylan and John Lennon used to.
The 1995 Nobel laureate said: "There is this guy Eminem. He has created a sense of what is possible.
"He has sent a voltage around a generation. He has done this not just through his subversive attitude but also his verbal energy".
The rap star played two massive sell-out concerts in Punchestown Racecourse, Co Kildare, last weekend.
In the past 12 months he has topped the movie and album charts in both America and Britain and won an Academy Award in March for the best movie theme song for "Lose Yourself" from his semi-autobiographical film 8 Mile.