use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

sub parse {
    my ($self, $xmlfile) = @_;

    my $handler = sub { $self->handle_start(@_) };
    # time passes
    $handler->('foo','bar');
}

sub handle_start {
    print Dumper \@_;
};

sub new { bless {} };

my $self = main::->new();
$self->parse('some.xml');

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = [
          bless( {}, 'main' ),
          'foo',
          'bar'
        ];