G - Bm - Em - A - 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. 
  


[Refrão]
            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 itâ??s piers, 
     G               D                           Em            A      A7 
 I thought of how it must have hurt, when you're only fifteen years.