splitting post text into two columns

I am bringing a single post from my wordpress blog into my static site’s homepage. What I want to do is split this post’s text into two parts so I can display the first half in the left <div> and the second half in the right <div>.

Here is my code (simplified) so far:

<!--start left column - to include title and first half of the post's text-->
<div>
	<?php query_posts(); ?>

        	<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>

		    <h4><?php the_title(); ?></h4>
                    <div>
                    <?php the_content(); ?><!--should only be the first half-->
                    </div>
</div>

<!--start right column - contains image at top, but needs the remainder of the post's text below it-->

<div>
	<?php $images =& get_children( 'post_type=attachment&post_mime_type=image&post_parent=' . $post->ID );
foreach( $images as $imageID => $imagePost )
echo wp_get_attachment_image($imageID, array(174,174)); ?></div>

<!--rest of the post's text should go here-->
<?php endwhile; ?>

</div>

Also, can you bring in ‘the_content’ without it’s image coming along with it? As you can see I am bringing in the image separately so I can size and place it manually.