Let's Talk of Graves, of Worms, and Epitaphs

This poem reminds me of a quotation by King Richard II in Shakespeare's play Richard II. He states:

No matter where; of comfort no man speak:
Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;
Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes
Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth,
Let's choose executors and talk of wills:
And yet not so, for what can we bequeath
Save our deposed bodies to the ground?
Our lands, our lives and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.
For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings;
How some have been deposed; some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed;
Some poison'd by their wives: some sleeping kill'd;
All murder'd: for within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be fear'd and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life,
Were brass impregnable, and humour'd thus
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell king!
Cover your heads and mock not flesh and blood
With solemn reverence: throw away respect,
Tradition, form and ceremonious duty,
For you have but mistook me all this while:
I live with bread like you, feel want,
Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus,
How can you say to me, I am a king? (Richard II, 3.2. 144-177)

At this point in the play, Richard knows that he is going to die and King Henry IV shall take his place on the throne. I find this specific passage relates to Year of the Ram because at this point of the play, Richard acknowledges that there is no hope to hold on to. Like in the colonization of Hawaii, there is no going back. The archipelago is at a point at which, no matter how hard they try, things will never be the same as before the white man came to the islands. At this point, everything is about moving forward and making the best of the hand Hawaii was dealt. Like Richard, the Hawaiian kings just wanted what was best for the people, but a new world order was about to take effect. The only thing to do was to prepare for changes, accept fate, and make the best of what was to come. The key to survival now is to learn from past mistakes and thriving within the new rule.