Yuletide Sleep

When against earth a wooden heel
Hammers aloud as stone on steel; 
When the Yuletide days of light
Seem most indifferent  to that of night;
When the wind pounds, rattling the pane 
And the sky relinquishes its  frozen rain; 
When stripped,the trees, seize ghostly forms
Standing sentinel on the lawn;
When bare stained fields harden at last
Iron-flawed cracks from ice are  cast; 
When the earth is tired, worn,cross and old 
Oh to hunker down out of the cold!