[Child of the 7th Age]

Eomer,

Certainly don't apologize. You've obviously hit a chord for many of us or we wouldn't be furiously scribbling.

Yes, your contrast between "despair" and "contentment/happiness" certainly holds. I think both hope and despair involve a deep emotional response. Content/happiness to me does not connote that depth of emotional involvement as we experience in either hope or despair (in contrast to "joy", for example). In that sense, hope and despair are much closer to one another than despair and happiness/contentment.