I don't actually think there's an allusion to trespassing here. The narrator is passing through someone's woodlot far from the village, which is still accepted behavior in large portions of northern New England.
Much of Frost's poetry is about Vermont or New Hampshire, and Vermont's private woodland is very open (except in a few towns) and has always been so. This is thanks to the Vermont Constitution's provisions on hunting:
The inhabitants of this State shall have liberty in seasonable times, to hunt and fowl on the lands they hold, and on other lands not inclosed... under proper regulations, to be made and provided by the General Assembly.
If land isn't fenced off or actually posted (and posting large woodlands is deliberately difficult in Vermont), then it doesn't count as "inclosed."
And Vermont's culture still supports this. There are hundreds of acres of unposted private land near my house which are owned by old-school Vermonters, and I am absolutely welcome to hike them.
Maine has a slightly different set of rules, and posting land is easier. But once you get away from the coast and into the serious forest, it's not that different from Vermont. And as far as I know, New Hampshire also allows hunting on unposted woodland.
In Maine I believe postings need to be no more than 100ft apart but a painted purple stripe will suffice, not sure if that rule is in VT.
Maine is changing and every year more land is posted but in the inland areas people still look down on those who post. I can’t imagine the institutional and corporate owned tracts ever being posted. I hunt on some land trust land which requires some perfunctory, automated permissions. I spend a lot of time in western Maine and the North Maine Woods and they are truly my favorite places.
I understand for people like the parent who come from the west where they have BLM lands and all the attendant freedoms looking down on all that private land in the northeast and as someone who lives in Maine, that’s perfectly fine with me as I know what it’s really like here.
On the boundary? That seems somewhat reasonable. If they were much further apart than that, you could reasonably claim that you entered the property without knowing it was private.
yes on the boundaries. it varies by town but some of them require you to change the sign each year and keep it up to date with the town. so it's like an annual task for a landowner who typically has a million other tasks to do. here is an entertaining video series related to this: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc-AG0_QlqbCo_rhLic0A...
Hmm I was initially on the side of “everyone should have free passage through forest”, but “anyone can shoot your animals unless you re-post hundreds of signs per year” doesn’t seem like the right balance to arrive at either.
Basically, you have two options: A 500 foot "safety zone" around your house, which is easy (though not automatic like Maine), or a full posting of a larger area. Full posting requires:
1. Post every 400 feet.
2. Update the date on the signs every year.
3. Register with the town office for $5.
For people who own a lot of woods (in the hundreds of acres), this is deliberately obnoxious.
Much of Frost's poetry is about Vermont or New Hampshire, and Vermont's private woodland is very open (except in a few towns) and has always been so. This is thanks to the Vermont Constitution's provisions on hunting:
The inhabitants of this State shall have liberty in seasonable times, to hunt and fowl on the lands they hold, and on other lands not inclosed... under proper regulations, to be made and provided by the General Assembly.
If land isn't fenced off or actually posted (and posting large woodlands is deliberately difficult in Vermont), then it doesn't count as "inclosed."
And Vermont's culture still supports this. There are hundreds of acres of unposted private land near my house which are owned by old-school Vermonters, and I am absolutely welcome to hike them.
Maine has a slightly different set of rules, and posting land is easier. But once you get away from the coast and into the serious forest, it's not that different from Vermont. And as far as I know, New Hampshire also allows hunting on unposted woodland.