Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears

[Verse 1]
On the first day of January, 1892
They opened Ellis Island
And they let the people through
And the first to cross the threshold
Of that Isle of Hope and Tears
Was Annie Moore from Ireland
Who was only fifteen years

[Chorus]
Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears
But it's not the isle you left behind
That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain
Isle you'll never see again
But the Isle of Home is always on your mind

[Verse 2]
In a little bag she carried
All hеr past and history
And her dreams for the futurе
In the Land of Liberty
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
‘Cause there's no future in the past
When you're fifteen years

[Chorus]
Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears
But it's not the isle you left behind
That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain
Isle you'll never see again
But the Isle of Home is always on your mind

[Verse 3]
When they closed down Ellis Island in 1943
Seventeen million people
Had come there for sanctuary
And in springtime, when I came here
And I stepped onto it's piers
I thought of how it must have been
When you're fifteen years

[Chorus]
Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears
But it's not the isle you left behind
That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain
Isle you'll never see again
But the Isle of Home is always on your mind

[Chorus]
Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
Isle of Freedom, Isle of Fears
But it's not the isle you left behind
That Isle of Hunger, Isle of Pain
Isle you'll never see again
But the Isle of Home is always on your mind

[Outro]
The Isle of Home is always on your mind