prime

His larum bell might lowd and wyde be hard,

When cause requyrd, but neuer out of time;

Early and late it rong, at euening and at prime.

They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Pryme […]

To this end we see how quickly sundry artes Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the world.

When I do count the clock that tells the time,

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls all silver’d o'er with white;

Than he’s able to digest:

Give him always of the prime;

And but a little at a time.

Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.

I'm threatening to build a prime here.

[…] he pull’d the Trigger, but Providence being pleas’d to preserve me for some other Purpose, the Cock snapp’d, and miss’d Fire. Whether the Prime was wet in the Pan, or by what other Miracle it was I escap’d his Fury, I cannot say […]

Tomlinson, Shawn M. (2015) Going Pro for $200 & How to Choose a Prime Lens, →ISBN: “By the time I shifted to my first autofocus film SLR with the Pentax PZ-10, primes were considered things of the past”