You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <query>
    <search>
      <p ns="0" title="Merely to perceive" snippet="&amp;lt;center&amp;gt;Could the &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; of life be merely to perceive – the desire for matter to just shift towar&#10;" size="1744" wordcount="282" timestamp="2015-04-13T01:43:25Z" />
      <p ns="0" title="Subtitled narratives" snippet="...tory is what combines with the structure of a narrative in order to create &lt;span class=&#039;searchmatch&#039;&gt;meaning&lt;/span&gt; for the self - in non-abstract terms, subtitles (the complete comprehension&#10;" size="526" wordcount="80" timestamp="2015-04-12T04:52:47Z" />
    </search>
  </query>
</api>