String s='''<configuration>
   <param1>один какой-то параметр</param1>
   <param2>другой какой-то параметр</param2>
   <entries>
      <entry>
         <position>1</position>
         <name>имя1</name>
         <title>Заголовок1</title>
      </entry>
      <entry>
         <position>2</position>
         <name>имя2</name>
         <title>Заголовок2</title>
      </entry>
   </entries>
</configuration>'''

groovy.util.Node cfg=new groovy.util.XmlParser().parseText(s)

println cfg.param1.text()
println cfg.entries.entry.find{ it.name.text()=='имя2' }?.title?.text()

import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
import org.w3c.dom.Element;
import javax.xml.xpath.XPath;


public class DOM{
    public static Element parse(Object source){
        if(source instanceof String)source=new org.xml.sax.InputSource( new StringReader((String)source) );
        if(source instanceof Reader)source=new org.xml.sax.InputSource((Reader)source);

        javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder builder = javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
        return builder.parse((org.xml.sax.InputSource)source).getDocumentElement();
    }

    public static String xpathString(Element node, String expression){
        XPath xpath = javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath();
        return xpath.evaluate( expression, node, javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants.STRING );
    }

    public static NodeList xpathNodes(Element node, String expression){
        XPath xpath = javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath();
        return xpath.evaluate(expression, node, javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants.NODESET);
    }
}


String s='''<configuration>
   <param1>один какой-то параметр</param1>
   <param2>другой какой-то параметр</param2>
   <entries>
      <entry>
         <position>1</position>
         <name>имя1</name>
         <title>Заголовок1</title>
      </entry>
      <entry>
         <position>2</position>
         <name>имя2</name>
         <title>Заголовок2</title>
      </entry>
   </entries>
</configuration>''';

Element e = DOM.parse(s);
System.out.println( DOM.xpathString(e,"/configuration/param2") );
System.out.println( DOM.xpathString(e,"/configuration/entries/entry[name='имя2']/title") );

NodeList entries = DOM.xpathNodes(e,"/configuration/entries/entry")
System.out.println( "count="+entries.getLength() );
for(int i=0;i<entries.getLength();i++){
    System.out.println( "entry="+entries.item(i) );
}