GUEST Kees asks: "Could anyone please explain to me what the phrase "Can the circle be unbroken" followed by "By and by Lord, by and by" exactly means? I like the song very much, but I am really puzzled by the chorus. Is it based on some verse in the Bible?"

Kees, "By and by" is shorthand for "in the afterlife", or rather "in heaven" - for instance, used in the popular 19th-century hymn "In the Sweet By and By", satirised by the socialist Joe Hill in his equally popular 20th-century song "The Preacher and the Slave", with its chorus "There'll be pie in the sky by and by, by and by in the sweet by and by", which was a big hit in the hungry 1930s.

So the chorus of "Circle Be Unbroken" is asking the Lord: "Can the circle of love and friendship remain unbroken, O Lord, even after death?".