[00:16.300]On the first day of January,
[00:20.388]Eighteen ninety-two,
[00:24.132]They opened Ellis Island.
[00:27.786]And they let the people through.
[00:32.012]And first to cross the threshold.
[00:35.877]Of that isle of hope and tears,
[00:40.075]Was Annie Moore from Ireland
[00:44.028]Who was all of fifteen years.
[00:49.500]Isle of hope, isle of tears,
[00:53.524]Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
[00:57.892]But it's not the isle you left behind.
[01:05.140]That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
[01:09.157]Isle you'll never see again
[01:14.070]But the isle of home is always on your mind.
[01:22.107]In a little bag she carried
[01:25.568]All her past and history,
[01:29.372]And her dreams for the future
[01:32.922]In the land of liberty.
[01:37.147]And courage is the passport
[01:40.723]When your old world disappears
[01:45.451]But there's no future in the past
[01:49.476]When you're fifteen years
[01:54.291]Isle of hope, isle of tears,
[01:58.059]Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
[02:02.589]But it's not the isle you left behind.
[02:09.419]That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
[02:13.587]Isle you'll never see again
[02:18.287]But the isle of home is always on your mind.
[02:56.090]When they closed down Ellis Island
[02:59.555]In nineteen forty-three,
[03:04.306]Seventeen million people 1700
[03:07.226]Had come there for sanctuary.
[03:11.706]And in springtime when I came here
[03:15.492]And I stepped onto it's piers,
[03:19.762]I thought of how it must have been
[03:23.858]When you're fifteen years.
[03:28.810]Isle of hope, isle of tears,
[03:32.546]Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
[03:37.042]But it's not the isle you left behind.
[03:43.858]That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
[03:48.042]Isle you'll never see again
[03:52.557]But the isle of home is always on your mind.
[03:59.778]Isle of hope, isle of tears,
[04:03.554]Isle of freedom, isle of fears,
[04:07.825]But it's not the isle you left behind.
[04:13.996]That isle of hunger, isle of pain,
[04:18.318]Isle you'll never see again
[04:22.954]But the isle of home is always on your mind.
[04:30.266]The isle of home is always on your mind.