What is the point of tolstoy's comparison between a work of art and a food item?

In this excerpt from "dover beach" by matthew arnold, which two lines or sets of lines suggest that the speaker has undergone a loss of faith? the sea of faith was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. but now i only hear its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, retreating, to the breath of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear and naked shingles of the world. ah, love, let us be true to one another! for the world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new, hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, nor peace, nor for pain; and we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash by night.

Hamlet: ] it will but skin and film the ulcerous place, whiles rank corruption, mining all within, infects unseen. confess yourself to heaven; repent what’s past; avoid what is to come; and do not spread the compost on the weeds to make them ranker. —hamlet, william shakespeare what is the central motif in the passage? the passage of time madness disease and decay gardening

Describe your passion for sports (100 words or less). required