You can also use a HEREDOC but interpolation still occurs so the backslash needs escaping.

$ cat > testfile
line 1
line 2
line 3
line 4
line 5
$ perl -e '
> $result = <<`EOC`;
> tail -2 \\
> testfile
> EOC
> print $result;'
line 4
line 5
$
[download]

I hope this is of interest.

Cheers,

JohnGG