Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears Lyrics

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 all of 15 years.

Isle of hope, Isle of tears
Isle of freesom, 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.

In a little bag, she carried all her past and history
And her dreams for the future in the land of liberty
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
But there's no future in the past
When you're 15 years.

Isle of hope, Isle of tears
Isle of freesom, 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.

When they closed down Ellis Island
In 1943
17 million people had come there for sanctuary
And in springtime when I came here
And I stepped onto its piers
I thought of how it must have been
When you're 15 years.

Isle of hope, Isle of tears
Isle of freesom, 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.
The isle of home is always on your mind.