The Full Text of “Stabat Mater”
The Full Text of “Stabat Mater”
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“Stabat Mater” Introduction
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In "Stabat Mater," New Zealand poet Sam Hunt reflects on the shifting dynamic between his parents over the years. As a young woman, his mother was so shy around her much older husband that she called him "Mr. Hunt." As the speaker's father grew older and frailer, however, his mother assumed the role of authority figure and caregiver. The poem explores the way that time and aging change people and their relationships, while also paying tribute to the speaker's mother for her grace and humor in the face of hardship. The title "Stabat Mater" is Latin for "the mother stood," and it alludes to an old Christian hymn about Mary's suffering while witnessing Jesus's crucifixion.
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“Stabat Mater” Summary
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The speaker's mother used to call his father "Mr. Hunt" during the early years of their marriage, something the speaker discovered after finding an inscription his mother had left his father in a book. She'd addressed the note "To dear. Mr. Hunt" and signed it "from his loving wife."
His mother was self-conscious about this when the speaker brought it up. She explained that she'd struggled to call the speaker's father anything else when they first got together, given that he was older than her own father and she was intimidated by him.
These days, the speaker continues, his mother still seems girlish, but in a new way, as she calls his father all sorts of names. She looks after him as he navigates his old age, now and then giving her son a knowing look as though they were just playing around.
The speaker will have to learn from his mother's example and know when to walk away, understanding that he can't ever go back.
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“Stabat Mater” Themes
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Time, Aging, and Relationships
"Stabat Mater" illustrates how time alters family dynamics. The speaker describes how his father, who is decades older than his mother, shifts from being an imposing figure to a vulnerable old man; how his mother, once shy and timid, takes charge of the household; and how the speaker himself confronts the need to accept the challenges of adulthood. Time's passage is inevitable, the poem implies, and aging can drastically change the way people relate to each other.
At the beginning of their marriage, the speaker's father held a kind of authority over his wife because of their vast age gap. The speaker's mother used to call his father "Mr. Hunt"—an almost ridiculously stiff, formal form address for her own husband. It's not necessarily the case that she didn't care for her husband early on in their relationship; on the contrary, she referred to herself as "his loving wife," suggesting that she felt at least some tenderness toward him even if he intimidated her. The issue was that he was older than her own father, making it "hard" to "call him any other name." His age made her feel "so small," suggesting that there was a kind of parent-child dynamic between them.
But as both parents got older, their dynamic essentially flipped. The speaker's father became elderly and frail, and his mother began to take care of him. Now, she guides the speaker's father "as he roams old age." In other words, she shepherds him through the challenges of getting older and transitioning into a new, less independent phase of life.
Instead of calling him "Mr. Hunt," she now addresses him with "every other sort of name," sometimes turning playfully to her son "as if it were a game." It's not clear what these names are—perhaps they're gently chiding insults, perhaps they're terms of affection (like "dear"), or, most likely, a combination of both. The variety of "names" reflects the mother's increased boldness and the dramatic shift in their marriage as her husband grows more dependent and, indeed, childlike.
In the poem's final stanza, the speaker reflects on what he can learn from his parents' experience. He understands that a moment will come when he, too, will have to "learn" the same "game" that his mother now plays. This might mean that once he "stand[s] up straight," or accepts the reality of adulthood, he will need to learn to bear his own suffering with strength. More specifically, this line might mean that he'll need to learn to deal with the pain of watching those he loves inevitably grow old, knowing that "there's no return" to the way things once were.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-14
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Love and Sacrifice
The poem's title, "Stabat Mater," roughly translates to "The Mother Stood" and alludes to a Christian hymn that depicts Mary as the "suffering" or "sorrowful" mother standing before the crucified Jesus. Hunt's poem focuses on the difficult sacrifices his own mother has made for her family, becoming a tribute to her unconditional love and grace in the face of hardship.
The speaker presents his mother as a loving, supportive figure who accepts life's struggles with strength and humor. When her much older husband, the speaker's father, grows elderly and weak, she steps in to take care of him. Whereas she once was too timid to call him anything other than the formal "Mr. Hunt," she embraces her new role as the authority figure in the family, "guiding" her husband as he "roams" the difficult terrain of "old age."
Of course, this is a tough responsibility to take on. She has to watch her partner grow frail and closer to death, all the while remaining steady and dependable. She's more like a mother to her husband than a lover, but she accepts this, as far as the reader knows, with little complaint.
In fact, she maintains her good humor. She seems playful, "still like a girl," as she calls her husband "every other sort of name," which probably consist of both teasing insults and terms of endearment. Sometimes she even "turns" to the speaker as if her new role were a kind of "game." Again, this might suggest the way she tries to make light of a difficult situation and suffers without ever appealing for pity. Acting like the whole thing is a "game" might also be her way of shielding the speaker from both her own sorrow and the pain of watching his father deteriorate.
On that note, the poem's ending might represent the mother's call to her son to live his life rather than stay behind and worry about his aging parents. That he "too must learn / to walk away" is perhaps a reminder that loving a child means letting them go and encouraging them to become independent and live their lives while they can, even if it leaves you, the parent, more alone in your suffering. Read this way, the poem bears witness to the speaker's mother's strength and to her sorrow.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-14
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Stabat Mater”
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Lines 1-4
My mother called ...
... his loving wife."The title "Stabat Mater" means "the mother stood" and alludes to a Christian hymn dating to the 13th century. The opening line in the original Latin reads, "Stabat mater dolorósa juxta Crucem lacrimósa." Loosely translated, that means: "the sorrowful/suffering mother stood next to the cross, weeping." Before the poem has even begun, then, it nods to the noble suffering of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The title tells readers that the speaker sees a similarity between Mary's sacrifice and that of his own mother.
The poem itself then begins with the revelation that the speaker's mother used to call his father "Mr. Hunt" for the first few years of their marriage. The reader doesn't yet know why this is the case; the reveal of their age gap doesn't come until stanza 2. (As the father's name, "Mr. Hunt," suggests, the poem was inspired by the poet's own parents, who were 30 and 60 when Sam Hunt was born.)
For now, all readers know is that the speaker's mother doesn't seem all that comfortable with her husband. "Mr. Hunt" is very formal, the mode of address that a pupil might use with their teacher. Its usage here implies that there was a clear power dynamic at work in the "first few years" of this couple's "married life."
The meter of this opening line is iambic pentameter: five metrical feet that follow an unstressed-stressed syllabic pattern. This feels a little stiff for a contemporary poem, conveying the formality of this relationship:
My mo- | ther called | my fa- | ther "[Mis- | ter] Hunt"
This line and the next also feature alliteration and consonance of the delicate /f/ sound: "father," "first few," "life." This sound is gentle and even a little feeble, perhaps evoking the mother's lack of confidence in those early years of her marriage.
Lines 3 and 4 then reveal how the speaker "learned" this curious fact about his mother. She'd written an inscription to his father in a book that read, "To dear Mr. Hunt, from his loving wife." The words "dear" and "loving" suggest some tenderness, but the inscription still reads very formally. The clear final rhyme between "wife" and "life" adds to that sense of formality and propriety.
"Stabat Mater" is a Shakespearean sonnet, its 14 lines divided into three quatrains and a closing couplet. Sonnets are traditionally love poems, making this a fitting form for a poem that will honor a mother's love for her family.
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Lines 5-8
She was embarrassed ...
... seem so small. -
Lines 9-10
Now in a ...
... sort of name; -
Lines 11-12
And guiding him ...
... were a game… -
Lines 13-14
That once I ...
... there's no return.
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“Stabat Mater” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
"Stabat Mater" features subtle alliteration that makes the poem more lyrical and brings some of its images to life. For example, listen to the soft /f/ alliteration in lines 1-2:
My mother called my father "Mr. Hunt"
For the first few years of married life.There's also some consonance here, with the internal /f/ in "life." All of these delicate, fricative sounds might evoke the speaker's mother's timidity and lack of confidence during the early years of her marriage. The breathy /h/ sounds in the second stanza work similarly, as the mother explains
[...] how hard it had been
To call him [her husband] any other name at first [...]These /h/ sounds require repeated exhalations of air, making the tone here feel labored and perhaps even a bit exasperated. The speaker's mother is self-conscious about her younger self's behavior, but she's also defending her actions—insisting that it was difficult and strange to address a man older than her own father as anything other than "Mr." The sibilant alliteration of "seem so small" at the end of the stanza then reduces the poem to whisper, again suggesting the mother's shyness and apprehension.
Towards the poem's end, the alliteration of "stand up straight" adds some oomph to this phrase, which likely refers to the speaker growing up and/or becoming independent.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “father”
- Line 2: “For,” “first few”
- Line 5: “when,” “why”
- Line 6: “how hard”
- Line 8: “seem so small”
- Line 13: “stand,” “straight”
- Line 14: “walk away,” “know,” “no”
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Allusion
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Metaphor
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Simile
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"Stabat Mater" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Stabat Mater
- Inscribed
- Her father's elder
- Roams
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(Location in poem: )
Latin that roughly translates to "The Mother Stood." This is a reference to a hymn about Mary's suffering while watching Jesus's crucifixion.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Stabat Mater”
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Form
"Stabat Mater" is a Shakespearean sonnet, consisting of three quatrains (four-line stanzas) followed by a final rhyming couplet. Sonnets are associated with love poetry, so the form is appropriate for this poem about a mother's love for her family (and, implicitly, a son's love and respect for his mother).
A Shakespearean sonnet typically contains a volta, or turn, in its final couplet. This is a moment marked by a swift change in tone or argument. In "Stabat Mater," the speaker shifts from focusing on his parents' relationship to focusing on what he has learned from his mother's example. The clear, perfect rhyme between "learn"/"return" in this stanza makes the poem's ending feel firmer and more conclusive.
Finally, there's a small turn in the ninth line as well, which is where the volta falls in a Petrarchan sonnet. Here, the poem switches the focus from the past to the present and from the mother's timid younger self to her more confident role in the family dynamic.
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Meter
"Stabat Mater" uses a loose iambic pentameter, which refers to lines of five iambs: metrical feet that follow an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern (da-DUM). This is the classic meter for sonnets, and here it lends the poem a steady heartbeat.
Sometimes, this meter helps to evoke the stiff formality of the speaker's parents' couple's early relationship, as in line 1:
My mo- | ther called | my fa- | ther "M[is- | ter] Hunt"
And in lines 7-8:
To call | him a- | ny o- | ther name | at first, | when he—
Her fa- | ther's el- | der—made | her seem | so small.Elsewhere, by contrast, the steady, propulsive iambic meter capture's the speaker's resolve. Take line 14:
To walk | away | and know | there's no | return.
The poem is filled with variations on this meter, however, as with the trochee that begins line 9 ("Now in"). The meter isn't overly strict throughout, which keeps its language feeling more natural and contemporary.
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Rhyme Scheme
Shakespearean sonnets typically feature the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. That is, each quatrain features alternating rhymes (the first and second lines rhyme, as do the second and fourth), and the poem then ends with a rhyming couplet.
"Stabat Mater" nods to this pattern without following it exactly. The first quatrain rhymes only its second and fourth rhymes, creating the pattern ABCB ("Hunt" A /"life" B /"inscribed" C /"wife" B). The third quatrain follows the same pattern ("girl"/"name"/"age"/"game"), and the poem ends with the expected rhyming couplet ("learn"/"return"). The second quatrain, however, doesn't rhyme at all. Technically speaking, then, the rhyme scheme of "Stabat Mater" runs ABCB DEFG HIJI KK.
The poem is thus musical but not overly predictable or rigid. Perhaps it's significant that lines 6 and 8 don't rhyme (if they followed the pattern of the other quatrains, they would). The speaker's mother describes how she felt "so small" in the early years of her marriage and, in effect, the rhyme here hides away.
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“Stabat Mater” Speaker
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This poem is autobiographical and readers can assume that the speaker is the poet himself. For one thing, the speaker's father is named "Mr. Hunt." Sam Hunt's mother was also 30 years younger than his father.
The speaker clearly admires his mother's ability to adapt to a difficult situation with grace and good humor. This poem is essentially a way of bearing witness to her suffering (just as she bears witness to her husband's). The speaker is clearly moved by his mother's story. It's unclear, from the poem at least, how he feels about his father in all this; perhaps, having had less time with him, the speaker never got to know his father in the way that he knows his mother.
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“Stabat Mater” Setting
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"Stabat Mater" doesn't have a clear setting beyond taking place in the speaker's present—"Now." From this vantage point, the speaker looks back on parents' relationship. He begins the poem with a focus on "the first few years of married life," when his mother, who was decades younger than his father, was so shy and intimidated that she called her husband "Mr. Hunt."
The speaker later zooms forward into the present day, when his mother calls his now elderly "father every other sort of name" while "guiding him" through "old age." The poem thus spans many years, which allows it to illustrate how aging and time can drastically alter people's dynamics.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Stabat Mater”
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Literary Context
New Zealand poet Sam Hunt published "Stabat Mater" in his 1973 collection South Into Winter. Hunt has said that he's been inspired by his fellow New Zealand writers James K. Baxter and Alistair Campbell, as well as by W. B. Yeats, W. H. Auden, and Dylan Thomas. He has also cited Beat writers such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg as major influences on his work, though his own poetry tends to be more formal. Indeed, "Stabat Mater" is a Shakespearean sonnet: a relatively strict poetic form consisting of three quatrains and a rhyming couplet, written in iambic pentameter.
The sonnet dates all the way back to the 13th century but was famously perfected by the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch. William Shakespeare helped popularized a slightly different version of the form in English (hence the term "Shakespearean" sonnet). Sonnets got their start as love poems, so the form is fitting for Hunt's poem about a mother's love for her family.
"Stabat Mater" also alludes to a Christian hymn dating from the 13th century that describes Mary standing by Jesus on the cross. The hymn's first line, "stabat mater dolorosa," means "the sorrowful/suffering mother was standing" (or "stood," depending on the translation).
Historical Context
Sam Hunt was born in New Zealand in 1946. "Stabat Mater," like many of Hunt's poems, is autobiographical: Hunt's parents had a 30-year age gap, and when he was born in 1946, Hunt's father was already 60.
Of this unusual dynamic, Hunt once said, "When I was 10, [my father] was 70. That’s the age I am now and the thought of having a 10-year-old would be quite hard work, but Dad coped with it quite well. But when I was in my 20s and 30s, he was in his 80s and 90s and that was the time he was losing it."
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More “Stabat Mater” Resources
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External Resources
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"Stabat Mater" Hymn — Listen to a performance of the "Stabat Mater" hymn to which this poem alludes, set to music by 18th-century Italian composer Pergolesi.
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The Poet at Home — Sam Hunt discusses his work and reads his poems from his coastal home.
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Stabat Mater — Learn more about the famous hymn from which the poem takes its title.
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Sam Hunt on Poetry — Read an interview with Hunt that discusses his approach to the poetic craft.
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