此诗描写一位技艺高超的琴师弹琴的过程。诗人借此表现自己不与世俗社会同流合污的孤高性格。全诗分为三部分。前四句为第一段。写弹琴的环境是流泉深邃的幽涧。琴无装饰，放置白石，琴弦的调子调得很高。这一切都表现出与众不同孤高。中八句用具体形象描写弹出的曲调。“心寂历似千古”是琴师弹琴时的心绪，给琴音定下了主调：情似太古，不同凡响。接着用四种具体事物表现琴音的孤高：像大片松林被风吹拂，发出一片飕飗之声；似孤单的哀猿处危岩高木而长吟；像哀时失职的迁客泪流粘襟；像小溪流水叮咚成音。“缉商缀羽”是弹琴全过程的指法，与“心寂历似千古”相呼应。末四句是琴师对自己琴曲的主观评价：自己抒发的感情自有独特妙趣，众人颇难解其中从古到今的少有的情感。“幽涧泉，鸣深林”指出琴曲的主旋律。
李白·《幽涧泉》
拂彼白石，弹吾素琴。
幽涧愀兮流泉深，善手明徽高张清。
心寂历似千古，松飕飗兮万寻。
中见愁猿吊影而危处兮，呌秋木而长吟。
客有哀时失职而听者，泪淋浪以沾襟。
乃缉商缀羽，潺湲成音。
吾但写声发情于妙指，殊不知此曲之古今。
幽涧泉，鸣深林。
Secluded Gorge Spring
Li Bai
Let me wipe that slab of white stone
With the sleeve folds of my loose flowing gown;
I'm to pluck my heptachord plain
By the side of a fresh spring bubbling deep down
In this secluded gorge 'tween mountains twain.
Fair-toned plucking of fingers deft and apt,
Well directed by my lucid mind and vacant;
Solitary as if lasting a thousand years long,
Like the subdued roarings of a sea of pine foliage
Six score furlongs thick to form a dense throng,
Midst which to be seen the gibbons sadly shrieking
Self-pityingly, jumping about and clambering
Along precariously atop autumnal trees.
There is one forlorn of hope and bewailing
The times, hearing woe-begone cries such as these,
Who doth flush tears his lapels to drench through.
Thereupon I summon tuneful notes in a gentle flow,
Toning at my finger tips with feelings the melody,
Knowing not, albeit, the sonata thus performed by me
Be ancient or modern. Ah, Secluded Gorge Spring,
