It would be nice to have custom before and after parameters for the wp_list_pages template tag.
For example:
<?php
$defaults = array(
'depth' => 0,
'show_date' => '',
'date_format' => get_option('date_format'),
'child_of' => 0,
'exclude' => '',
'title_li' => __('Pages'),
'echo' => 1,
'authors' => '',
'sort_column' => 'menu_order, post_title'),
/* add handling for the following parameters */
'custom' => 'html', // or custom, or whatever logic
'before' => '<li>beforetext',
'after' => 'aftertext</li>');
wp_list_pages($defaults);
?>
I realize that this can be done with a plugin, however it seems like an option that should have been implemented like many other lists found in the WordPress base code.