D A G D D A G D
D A G D
On the first day of January, eighteen ninety-two,
G D Em A
they opened Ellis Island and they let the people through.
D A G D
And the first to cross the threshold, of that isle of hope and tears,
G D Em A A7
was Annie Moore from Ireland, who was all of fifteen years.
Chorus:
G A D Bm
Isle of hope, isle of tears, isle of freedom, isle of fears,
G Em A A7
but it's not the isle you left behind.
G A D Bm
That isle of hunger, isle of pain, isle you'll never see again,
G A D
but the isle of home is always on your mind.
D A G D
In a little bag she carried, all her past and history,
G D Em A
and her dreams for the future, in the land of liberty.
D A G D
And courage is the passport, when your old world disappears,
G D Em A
but there's no future in the past, when you're all of fifteen years.
Chorus:
G - Em - Em - A - D
D A G D
When they closed down Ellis Island, in 1943,
G D Em A
seventeen million people had come there for sanctuary.
D A G D
And in Springtime when I came here, and I stepped onto it’s piers,
G D Em A A7
I thought of how it must have hurt, when you're only fifteen years.
