You could consider a parser. 
#!/usr/bin/perl 

use strict;
use warnings;
use HTML::TokeParser::Simple;

my $str = q{<tag ref=1>Start<tag ref=2>and more</tag>and end</tag>};

my $p = HTML::TokeParser::Simple->new(\$str)
  or die "can't parse str: $!";
  
my @array;
while (my $t = $p->get_token){
  push @array, $t->as_is;
}

print "$_\n" for @array;

[download]
output: 
---------- Capture Output ----------
> "C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe" _new.pl
<tag ref=1>
Start
<tag ref=2>
and more
</tag>
and end
</tag>

> Terminated with exit code 0.

[download]

In reply to Re: Split tags and words nicely by wfsp
in thread Split tags and words nicely by bwgoudey

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.