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.