For Dwight Macdonald
Under the too white marmoreal Lincoln Memorial,
the too tall marmoreal Washington Obelisk,
gazing into the too long reflecting pool,
the reddish trees, the withering autumn sky,
the remorseless, amplified harangues for peace---
Lowell is pointing out the ideology that the state architecture of Washington references – the monuments are marmoreal (meaning, similar to marble) and thus are like the monuments of Rome and Lowell also chooses the word “obelisk” to reference the Egyptian empire. 
 He feels out of place and uncomfortable.  Uncomfortable both with the state of the U.S.A. and with his place in the march.  Everything is done up to eleven or super-sized: “too white,” “too tall,” “too long.”
The March 1