Verse 1 The iron gates were breathing fog Beneath a bleeding sky The towers carved in charcoal stone Watched every passerby The gravel whispered underfoot Like secrets being read And ivy climbed the chapel walls Like veins upon the dead Verse 2 The bells were slow as winter rain They rang but never warmed And statues stared with marble eyes As though they had been warned A raven perched above the arch And studied every name As if the ones who entered here Would not depart the same Chorus So sign your name in autumn ink Where yellow leaves have fallen The halls remember everything And softly keep on calling The candles burn for older ghosts Who never truly left And every mind that wanders here Returns a little less Verse 3 The dormer windows glowed like coals In corridors of dust And portraits lined the ancient halls With scholars turned to rust Their gilded plaques and Latin lines Half faded into years But every painted pair of eyes Still followed through the mirrors Bridge The registrar with silver hair Said softly with a smile "Some knowledge grows in darker soil And takes a little while." The parchment cracked beneath my hand The contract thin and pale And somewhere in the orchard dark A distant raven wailed Final Chorus So sign your name in autumn ink Where yellow leaves have fallen The halls remember everything And softly keep on calling For minds that bloom in candle smoke And hearts that ache to know The gates were old before we came And older when we go Sign your name in autumn ink Where yellow leaves have fallen The halls remember everything And softly keep on calling For minds that bloom in candle smoke And hearts that ache to know The gates were old before we came And older when we go
