diff --git a/include/mapnik/text_processing.hpp b/include/mapnik/text_processing.hpp
index c6349b24b..22b86e98f 100644
--- a/include/mapnik/text_processing.hpp
+++ b/include/mapnik/text_processing.hpp
@@ -127,6 +127,7 @@ private:
 class text_node: public node {
 public:
     text_node(expression_ptr text): node(), text_(text) {}
+    text_node(std::string text): node(), text_(parse_expression(text)) {}
     void to_xml(boost::property_tree::ptree &xml) const;
     static node_ptr from_xml(boost::property_tree::ptree const& xml);
     virtual void apply(char_properties const& p, Feature const& feature, processed_text &output) const;