Wrap HTML tags in template
File: Data.xml <poem year="1667" type="epic"> <verse>line 3</verse> <verse>line 4</verse> </poem> File: Transform.xslt <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0"> <xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="no" /> <xsl:template match="verse"> <html> <body> <xsl:apply-templates /> </body> </html> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> Output: <html><body>line 3</body></html> <html><body>line 4</body></html>