On The First Day On January, 
Eighteen Ninety-Two, 
They Opened Ellis Island And They Let 
The People Through. 
And The First To Cross The Treshold 
Of That Isle Of Hope And Tears, 
Was Annie Moore From Ireland 
Who Was All Of Fifteen Years. 

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. 

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 Fifteen Years 

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. 

When They Closed Down Ellis Island 
In Nineteen Fourty-Three, 
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. 

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.