An Analysis of Updike's "Player Piano" Evaluate the effectiveness of diction as an adjunct to meaning in John In "Player Piano", John Updike uses personification to give life to a ‘unhuman' piano. By using diction to communicate his ideas, he effectively allows the reader to explore the psyche of a "Player Piano". In the first couple lines of the poem, assonance and consonance are present. In line one, these musical devices dominate the sentence as there is a repetition of the "ick" sound in "stick", "click", and "snicker" suggesting to the reader the sharpness of the piano, also reminding readers of the constant clicking sound found in mechanical devic