In the poem "Snow in the Suburbs," Hardy describes a flurry of snow covering trees and pavements and swirling through the air.

In the second stanza of the poem, Hardy describes a small sparrow in one of the trees being covered by snow. As soon as the sparrow lands on a branch of the tree, it dislodges a lump of snow from another branch above it, and this lump of snow, "thrice his own slight size," falls onto the poor sparrow.

In line 12 of the poem (line 4 of the second stanza),Hardy writes that the snow "Descends on [the sparrow] and showers his head and eye." The implication is that the sparrow is completely covered by the snow. In lines 13 and 14, Hardy emphasizes this impression when, describing the impact of the snow on the sparrow, he writes,

And overturns him,
And near inurns him.

The repetition of the word and at the beginning of each line, combined with the repetition of the sound -urns him at the end of both lines, emphasizes how much snow falls onto the sparrow. The repetition of the word and specifically suggests an ongoing accumulation of snow. The repetition of the nasal n and m sounds in -urns him evokes a heaviness and perhaps also a sense of any noise from the sparrow being muffled by the snow.

The repetition of -urns in line 14 also recalls the image implied by "overturns" in line 13 and suggests that the sparrow is being overturned again by the sheer amount of snow falling onto it.