In his perceptive discussion of Catullus' eighth poem (Greece & Rome xiii, no. i [1966], 15–21) R. L. Rowland several times speaks of the ‘two halves’ of the poem, the second of which he takes to start with uale, puella, iam Catullus obdurat. These ‘two halves’, however, are very unequal in length, occupying eleven and eight lines respectively; and Catullus has made it hard for the reader to fail to notice this, for there are few Latin poems in which the structural parts are more clearly, or as clearly, marked. It may be legitimate to discern a poetic intention behind these ‘signposts’, and, if so, an analysis of them may perhaps supplement Mr. Rowland's observations and itself contribute something to our critical appreciation of the poem.