An Analysis Of Updike's "Player Piano"

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in these three consecutive words evokes a feeling of rhythm or
harmony - pleasant sounds from the player piano.

The next stanza starts with an internal rhyme: "My paper can caper".
The simple rhyme suggests that the paper can leap and jump about like a
child. The connotation of the word "abandon" adds to this suggestion of
unrestrained movement or activity. The words "dint" and "din" are
alliterative, and the suggestion is that the "din" of the piano broadcasts
its sound far and wide. In line three of stanza two there is both internal
rhyme and assonance in "man", "band", and "hand". Updike tells us that the
piano has a sense of pride in its ability to produce its own music,
unassisted by any human hand. Of course there is irony in this because it
was a human who originally programmed the piano. The last two lines of the
second stanza are extremely rhythmic, and closely imitate the sort of
rhythm that comes from the piano as in the line: "The tones I turn on from
within." The ...

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