Narrative poem, a huge success at the time of its publication, and the inspiration for the 1944 movie  The White Cliffs of Dover. The White Cliffs is a novel in verse, the story of an American girl who falls in love with an Englishman in the era of World War I. The American girl visits London just before the First World War, marries, and stays in England during the succeeding years, including the start of the Second World War.