Ormus

Depiction in literature

Hormuz is mentioned in a passage from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (Book II, lines 1–5) where Satan's throne "Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind", which Douglas Brooks states is Milton linking Hormuz to the "sublime but perverse orient". It is also mentioned in Andrew Marvell's poem "Bermudas", where pomegranates are described as "jewels more rich than Ormus shows". In Hart Crane's sonnet "To Emily Dickinson", it appears in the couplet: "Some reconcilement of remotest mind / Leaves Ormus rubyless, and Ophir chill." The closet drama Alaham by Fulke Greville is set in Hormuz. The Kingdom of Hormuz, referred to as 'Ormuz', is described in Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall as "the driest kingdom in the world, where there are no trees and no crop but salt. Stand at its centre, and you look over thirty miles in all directions of ashy plain: beyond which lies the seashore, encrusted with pearls."