(orig. = capo 2nd)
C-E-A-D-GGDCG
1. On the first day of January, eighteen ninety-two,
CGDm
they opened Ellis Island and they let the people through.
G
And the first to cross the threshold of that isle of hope and tears,
CG-D7
was Annie Moore from Ireland who was all of fifteen years.
CDEm
Isle of hope, isle of tears, isle of freedom, isle of fears,
CAD
but it's not the isle you left behind.
CDEm
That isle of hunger, isle of pain, isle you'll never see again,
CDG
but the isle of home is always on your mind.
GDG
2. In a little bag she carried all her past and history,
CGDm
and her dreams for the future in the land of liberty.
GDG
And courage is the passport when your old world disappears,
CGDm
but there's no future in the past, when you're all of fifteen years,
+ CHORUS
+C-E-A-D-GGDG
3. When they closed down Ellis Island in nineteen forty-three,
CGAD
seventeen million people had come there for sanctuary.
GDG
And in Springtime when I came here and I stepped onto its piers,
CGD7
I thought of how it must have hurt when you're only fifteen years.
CDEm
Isle of hope, isle of tears, isle of freedom, isle of fears,
CAD
but it's not the isle you left behind.
CDEm
That isle of hunger, isle of pain, isle you'll never see again,
CDG
but the isle of home is always on your mind.
(orig. moves up half a note to capo 3rd here)
+ repeat CHORUS
CDGm
+ Yes, the isle of home is always on your mind.