E X T E N S I O N DIRE STRAITS ROMEO AND JULIET Romeo and Juliet is a song by the British rock band Dire Straits . it first appeared on the 1980 album making movies and was then released1 as a single in 1981. the title of the song clearly refers to William Shakespeare s masterpiece Romeo and Juliet, but, unlike the tragedy, the main topic of the song is lost or unrequited2 love. the song, written by the guitarist and singer of the band mark Knopfler, was inspired by his failed2 love story with Holly vincent, lead singer of the band Holly and the italians . the song is about a Romeo who is still very much in love with his Juliet, who, unfortunately, decides to abandon him after finding success. Knopfler, in fact, during an interview, said that vincent used her relationship with him to boost4 her career. the song is like a melancholic serenade5. it starts as a very realistic dialogue, but then it becomes a monologue where Romeo tries to convince Juliet to start a new relationship with him again. However, Romeo s words prove useless because Juliet doesn t answer. the structure of the song is that of the typical ballad in english literature, so its structure is regular: there are stanzas of four verses in rhyming couplets6 with many repetitions and alliterations7. moreover, the song has a cyclical structure and it starts and ends with the same verses: A love-struck R omeo sings a streetsuss serenade laying everybody low with a love song that he made. Finds a streetlight, steps out of the shade, Says something like You and me babe, how about it? R omeo, crazy with love, sings a serenade on the street turning everybody sad with his song. He finds a street lamp and takes some steps out of the shadow 8. He says something like You and me baby, what do you think about it? 6. rhyming couplets: two lines of poetry of equal length that have the same final sound. 7. alliterations: same letter or sound at the beginning of words that are close together. 8. shadow: dark shape that something s form makes on the ground, when they are between the light and the ground. 1. released: made available to the public. 2. unrequited: not reciprocated, not returned. 3. failed: not successful. 4. boost: to make something become more successful. 5. serenade: a song played by a lover outside the window of the woman he loves. 69