I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman -
I have detested you long enough.
I come to you as a grown child
Who has had a pig-headed father;
I am old enough now to make friends.
It was you that broke the new wood,
Now is a time for carving.
Pound goes on with the paternal view of Whitman. For one, he is saying that he builds his poetry style off Whitman’s, much as a son could learn a trade or craft from his father. By calling Whitman pig-headed, he hints that he was reluctant to admit Whitman’s influence because he was intimidated by him, as a son can be intimidated by an overbearing father. 
 He also implies that there is something stubbornly persistent, or insistent, about Whitman’s stance and style–perhaps exemplified by lines like the following (from  “Song of Myself” ): 
 I see through the broadcloth and gingham whether or no, And am around, tenacious, acquisitive, tireless, and cannot be shaken away.