Should I use "in" or "of"?
I posted a photo that was very serene. I wrote as my heading:
The serenity of this speaks to me.
But I don't know if that's correct. Should I have instead said:
The serenity in this speaks to me.
I can't stop it from ruminating in my head.
The problem with the example sentence comes from the use of the pronoun, which makes it difficult to answer.
For example, I would say that each of the following two sentences uses the more common preposition for the subject it describes:
- The serenity of this lake (shown in the picture) speaks to me.
→ The serenity of this lake speaks to me.
- The serenity (shown by the lake)in this picture speaks to me.
→ The serenity in this picture speaks to me.
One is talking about the subject shown depicted within the picture, while the other is talking about the picture itself. The specific thing being discussed makes a difference to the preposition used.
But in the original sentence, the referent of this is missing.
The serenity of / in this (What?) speaks to me.
What we understand this to stand for will change the preposition that we would use to describe it.
As such, the sentence is ambiguous. All you need to do to make it clear is to add either lake (or whatever the actual subject of the picture is) or picture after this. If you do that, then the preposition to use should become clearer.
Of course, the entire issue could be bypassed if you posted the picture and simply added:
The serenity speaks to me.
That would alleviate the need to come up with a preposition at all—and any ambiguity between the picture itself and what it's showing wouldn't matter.
I feel like those sentences don't mean exactly the same thing. They ALMOST do, but there is a nuance - as if they are the same musical note in theory but are one octave apart.
When I read "serenity of this place", I think that the place has serenity, yes, but "serenity in this place" feels more momentary, like it may or may not feel as serene when visited at a later time.
But I am aware this is not a grammatical difference but a personal one - so if this doesn't help, please kindly disregard this message. To my knowledge, both work grammatically.
Serenity: The state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.
Serenity is a state of being. So we'd normally talk about the state of a place.
The serenity of this speaks to me.
"This" can refer to a place, a work (like a poem or painting), a thought process, etc.
But you can also refer to a state in a place (or work, etc). It doesn't work as well if you leave out what the "this" refers to, but it is still correct.
"Of" is a better choice but both are okay.