diff --git a/src/clj/markdown/core.clj b/src/clj/markdown/core.clj
index 4a649ea..68bee92 100644
--- a/src/clj/markdown/core.clj
+++ b/src/clj/markdown/core.clj
@@ -115,6 +115,13 @@
           html     (.toString output)]
       {:metadata metadata :html html})))
 
+(defn md-to-meta
+  "converts a markdown formatted string to a metadata map"
+  [text]
+  (when text
+    (let [input (new StringReader text)]
+      (parse-metadata input))))
+
 (defn md-to-html-string [text & params]
   (:html (md-to-html-string* text params)))
 
diff --git a/test/markdown/md_file_test.clj b/test/markdown/md_file_test.clj
index e014078..f59afcd 100644
--- a/test/markdown/md_file_test.clj
+++ b/test/markdown/md_file_test.clj
@@ -44,6 +44,20 @@
               :base_url    ["http://example.com"]}
              metadata)))))
 
+(deftest md-metadata-only
+  (testing "Finds all metadata, without parsing the rest of the file."
+    (let [md (slurp (str "test/files/metadata.md"))
+          metadata (markdown/md-to-meta md)]
+      (is (= {:title       ["My Document"]
+              :summary     ["A brief description of my document."]
+              :authors     ["Justin May"
+                            "Spooky Mulder"
+                            "End Line At End\n"]
+              :date        ["October 31, 2015"]
+              :blank-value []
+              :base_url    ["http://example.com"]}
+             metadata)))))
+
 (deftest md-yaml-metadata
   (testing "Finds all yaml metadata and correctly parses rest of file."
     (let [md (slurp (str "test/files/metadata-yaml.md"))